contents · 1980. “the science curriculum improvement study and student attitudes”. journal of...

Contents

2 Editorial

5 Method of Learning in SciencePaul Verghese

8 Teaching Science through TelevisionHiranmay Ray

13 Innovation in the Teaching of Mathematics in PrimarySchoolSr. M. Hyacintha, A.C.

20 Content in the Science CurriculumMarlow Ediger

24 Vital Concerns in Curriculum Development inScience and MathematicsV. G. Kulkarni

30 Identification of Scientifically Creative Youngsters —Issues and ImplicationsDr. Chhotan Singh

34 Innovative Evaluation Procedures in ScienceMarlow Ediger

39 Classroom Variables and Student-Attitudetowards ScienceDavid D. Kumar

46 Children's Conceptual Framework about NaturalPhenomena and Its Implication for Science TeachingDilip Kumar Mukhopadhyay

49 Relationship between Academic Self-concept inScience and Cognitive Preference StylesJ.S. Padhi

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54 Status of Science Teaching in Indian Schoolsfor Visually Impaired ChildrenH.O. Gupta and Anupama Singh

57 Pupil’s Academic Self-Concept and Achievement in Science : The Effects of Home EnvironmentJ.S. Padhi

62 Designing Science Units of StudyMarlow Ediger

69 Science Instruction for Making ChildrenThink and DoLalit Kishore

73 How the Teachers in Ashram Schools PerceiveScience Curriculum at the Upper Primary StageS. C. Agarkar and N. D. Deshmukh

Education is a form of learning in which theknowledge, skills, values, beliefs and habits of agroup of people are transferred from generationto generation. The present issue stands second inthe series of ‘50 years of School Science’ whichincludes articles imparting knowledge, skills,values, etc., through discussion, training, teachingor research.

In the article “Method of Learning in Science” theauthor describes that all knowledge andunderstanding of the materials and appliances ofpractical life and the phenomena of the world ofmatter and force must be ultimately based on ourpersonal experience, either in perceiving events,or the actions of other people and their effects, ormore directly by ourselves acting on things andnoting what happens.

“Teaching Science through Television” is a veryinteresting article in which author discussesteaching of science through television and offerssuggestions for increasing its effectiveness forteaching science.

In the article entitled “Classroom Variables andStudent Attitude Towards Science” the researcherconfers that there is no conclusive researchevidence to establish a relationship between theseclassroom variables (including exemplar sciencecurriculum, laboratory resources and classroomenvironment) and student attitude.

In “Innovations in the Teaching of Mathematics inPrimary School”, the researcher figures out thelist of various innovative methods like floor discs,flannel graph discs, disc charts for counting,

E D I T O R I A L

dominoes for teaching of number and values,abacus for place value of numbers, pocket boardsfor pattern making and geo boards.

In the paper “Content in the Science Curriculum”author explores diverse schools of thoughtemphasising subject matter to be emphasised inthe science curriculum.

“Children’s Conceptual Framework about Naturalphenomena and its Implication for Scienceteaching” explains that the teacher can reduce thediscrepancies between pupil’s intentions and her/his learning and similarity of the constructedmeaning by the teacher depends on the way apupil copes with the language used by the teacherduring instruction.

“Relationship between Academic Self-concept inScience and Cognitive Preference Style” aims atfinding the relationship between cognitivepreference style (CPS) and academic self-conceptin science (ASCSc) of the secondary schoolstudents and reveals that students differ in theirCPS with high and low ASCSSc, and genderdifferences are absent in CPS.

In the article “Vital Concern in CurriculumDevelopment in Science and Mathematics” theauthor discusses new concerns in curriculumdevelopment in science and mathematics in termsof the explicitly declared national goals andobjectives and lists some of these concerns withthe hope that these will be reflected in curriculumdevelopment. The article “Identification ofScientifically Creative Youngsters—Issue andImplications” discusses about the creativity and

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School Science Quarterly Journal March 2013

scientific creativity and says that the creativity is acomplex concept encompassing a wide spectrumof activities, also take up how we can testcreativity.

In the article “Innovative Evaluation Procedure inScience” the author discusses about theinstructional management system (IMS) toappraise pupil progress because teachers andsupervisors need to evaluate and revise thecurriculum to provide for diverse needs, interestand abilities of learners in the school.

In the article “Status of Science Teaching in IndianSchools for the Visually Impaired Children” theresearcher concludes the status of scienceteaching in Indian school for the children withvisual impairment and discusses the mosteffective way of their learning, i.e., learning bydoing hands on activities with real objects,organisms and suitable teaching aids under thesupervision of trained teachers.

In the paper entitled “Pupil’s Academic Self- conceptand Achievement in Science : The Effects of HomeEnvironment” the author concludes that ‘control’and ‘protectiveness’ are positively and significantlycorrelated with both ASCSSc and ASc whereas‘nurturance’, ‘rejection’ and ‘permissiveness’ arenegatively and significantly correlated with ASc

‘social isolation’ is also correlated with ASCSScsignificantly.

In “Designing Science Units of Study” the authoridentifies numerous issues in teaching scienceincluding specific versus general objectives, processversus product, ends of instruction, logical versus apsychological sequence, etc., and concludes that themethods of teaching science need to incorporatesome ways to resolve these issues.

The article “Science Instruction for MakingChildren Think and Do” describes that the scienceteaching can be effective with the cognitivedevelopment of students only when project work isdone seriously and science curriculum is madechild-centred. In the paper entitled “How theTeachers in Ashram Schools Perceive ScienceCurriculum at Upper Primary Stage” the authorhas raised issues related to curriculum, teacherpreparation, assessment techniques, school facility,etc. Further he concluded that all these issues areimportant and need to be relooked critically.

We sincerely hope that our readers would find thearticles, research papers, etc., interesting andeducative. Your valuable suggestions,observations and comments are always a sourceof inspiration which guide us to bring furtherimprovement in the quality of the journal.

All knowledge and understanding of the materialsand appliances of practical life and of thephenomena of the world of matter and force mustbe ultimately based on our personal experience,either in perceiving events, or the actions of otherpeople and their effects, or more directly byourselves acting on things and noting whathappens. Experience of one kind or another mustbe the source of all meaning and understandingof physical reality, although thought and imaginationcan transform experience into the higher and moreuniversal plane of general law and theory.

The primary mode of learning, therefore, is togain experience of the physical world around usby ‘acting on it in various ways and noting whathappens’. This is instinctively the young child’smode of learning. He acts on various things in avariety of ways, either on his own impulse, or inimitation of, or under the direction of others, andthus gains an ever increasing experience of thebehaviour of things and substances under variousconditions. It is true that in certain fields he haslittle, or no experience, e.g., in the properties andaction of magnets, frictional electricity, chemicalaction, generation of electricity, surface action,etc. He, however, comes to school with a fairlyextensive experience of materials, force, motion,heat, light, sound and uses of electric currents.Such experience is of necessity inexact, indefinite,

and superficial. It has been subjected to littleanalysis and organisation by thought. It is merely aloose mass of experience relating to the things ofeveryday life, and to its practical purposes. It is theaim of science teaching to extend this experience,to make it more exact, clear and full, to organise itinto general laws, and to rationalise it throughexplanation and theory. To quote Dewey, “Scienceis experience being rationalised”.

It is clear, then, that one important method oflearning science must be:

The gaining of exact and clear experience in fieldsin which the boy has little experience by theprimary method of "acting on things and notingexactly what happens," e.g., acting on chemicalsubstances with water, heat, or acids and notingwhat happens.

Observing more clearly and accurately whathappens in situations in which they haveexperience, e.g., friction, pupils have a fairlyextensive experience of friction by sliding,sledging and bicycle brakes. There is need,however, for accurate experimentation to makeclear and standardise the conditions thatdetermine friction. Similarly with levers, action offorces, etc. The starting point in all such enquiriesmust, of course, be in the recall and examinationof the experience they already have.

METHOD OF LEARNING IN SCIENCE

PPPPPaul Vaul Vaul Vaul Vaul VerererererghesegheseghesegheseghesePrincipalGovernment Training College, Trichur

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Knowledge, however, can advance far beyond theplane of perceived facts. By thought theintelligence can probe behind facts to thosefactors and conditions that are hidden, obscure,and frequently unperceivable. For example, we candirectly experience the upward force necessary tosupport a solid body by the hand and to move itupwards; but we cannot perceive the upwardforce that supports a ship, or that causes a corkto rise in water, or a balloon in air. Only thoughtcan reveal these obscure and hidden causes ofevents that are familiar to all. If the teacher is toguide his pupils’ thought in revealing these hiddencauses, he must know how such thought proceeds.

It is a psychological truth that an unknownsituation is interpreted by, and in terms of, theknown on the grounds of some similarity oranalogy of the unknown to the known. Forexample, suppose we are faced with the problemof finding the cause of a ship floating on water, ora cork rising on water, or a balloon in air. If we callto mind the experience that a solid body requiresthe upward force of the hand to support it andraise it, we can infer by analogy that water isexerting an upward pressure to support a ship,and cause the cork to rise, and also, that air isexerting an upward pressure in supporting andraising a balloon.

It is by such inferences from analogy that theintelligence is able to form conceptions of thoseconditions and forces operating in the world ofreality that are hidden from perception, but theunderstanding of which is the key to our graspand mastery of the world of matter and force.

Such inferences are, however, only of the natureof suppositions or hypotheses. They are notestablished truths. Inferences from analogy are

not logically infallible, and must be subjected totest to see if they will work under othercircumstances and conditions. Hence the testtakes the form of arguing: "If it is true, whatwould happen under this, that, or othercircumstances?" For example: If water exertsupward pressure, what should happen if an objectthat sinks is weighed in air and in water? Or if airpresses upward, what should happen to a columnof water, if we arrange to bring the upwardpressure of the air to bear on its lower surface?

Such experiments test and verify or disprove oursuppositions. They test our thought. They formthe dramatic crisis to which our creative thoughtworks, and they decide and resolve the issue oftrue or false.

The essence of this second stage of scientificmethod is:–

(a) Examination of some situation familiar to thepupils to reveal some specific problem.

(b) Search in the past experience of the pupils tofind some apt analogy that will bear on theproblem.

(c) Examination of the analogy to make clear theidea exemplifies, and the application of this ideato the problem to form a suggested explanation.

(d) Investing an experimental test that will verify ordisprove the suggested explanation.

It is the art of teaching to stimulate, help andguide the pupils in this process of examination,suggestion, and verification, and of finalexpression in concise notes and diagrams.

The essential nature of the scientific method isthus clear. It is quite true to say that the natural

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sciences are observational and experimentalstudies. They are just essentially studiesdemanding thought and imagination.Observation and experiment provide the basis offacts of experience from which thought starts;experience provides the analogies by which

thought infers possible explanations; and testingexperiment gives the facts that verify or disproveour imagined suppositions; but it is thought thatleads our understanding to the grasp of whatcauses lie behind the world of sensibleexperience.

METHOD OF LEARNING IN SCIENCELEARNING IN SCIENCELEARNING IN SCIENCELEARNING IN SCIENCELEARNING IN SCIENCE

We are living in a world of science. In every spherearound us we can feel and see as well the terrificimpact of science and technology. With thetremendous progress of science and technology,it has become necessary for every man tounderstand and apply science to his day-to-daylife. Contents of study have increased to a greatextent. Teachers have to teach and the studentshave to understand more matter in a given periodthan they used to do previously. The concept ofeducation has undergone a change. It is notmerely the understanding and memorising a bodyof facts, but is considered to be a process whichprepares an individual to become a worthymember of the society. For educating children forlife, improvisation of teaching techniques with thehelp of audio-visual aids has become necessary.Audio-visual aids which include sound films andtelevisions, are considered to be the mostimportant of all teaching aids. Television is one ofthe most significant discoveries of recent times inthe field of communication.

Scope of TV

Television, which has the best elements of both

the radio and the film, has made a tremendous

impact on spectators. The scope of TV in

education is immense. The learning process,

which involves all our senses to the fullest extent,

is perhaps the best. Our senses of hearing and

seeing contribute about 85 per cent towards thetotal knowledge gained.

TV in education can either be used as a teaching aidor as a teaching machine. Carefully selected TVinstructional programmes can supplement theclassroom teaching to a great extent. TVinstructional programmes can be developed inalmost all the subjects, from the languages toscience. Particularly, TV instructional programmesmake the study of science easier and moremeaningful. Teaching through close-circuit TV,which is a type of teaching machine, has foundtremendous encouragement in the developedcountries due to its immense usefulness.

Close-circuit TV is a far cry in our present set-up.So, let us confine our discussion to the TVinstructional programmes, which are beingtelecast from the Delhi TV station.

TV as a Teaching Aid

As already mentioned, TV as a teaching aid has

tremendous potentiality. Competent and

experienced teachers can give demonstrations

and talks on TV. Experiments not easy to perform

in the classroom situation and the models not

easily available to schools can be shown during

the TV lessons. A complete topic like flowers,

halogens, etc., can be taught through TV.

Experimental techniques can be explained and the

working of industrial processes can be shown

TEACHING SCIENCE THROUGH TELEVISION

Hiranmay RayHiranmay RayHiranmay RayHiranmay RayHiranmay RayHead of the Chemistry DepartmentRaisina Bengali Higher Secondary School, New Delhi

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through TV films. So, we see that the ways ofusing TV as a teaching aid are many. For the mosteffective use of TV, there should be a goodprogramme and for chalking up of goodprogramme certain points are to be remembered.

(i) Objective: It should be always remembered thatthe TV teacher cannot replace a classroomteacher. He can only help the latter in histeaching a topic or a subject. Objective of TVlesson is only to supplement the classroomteaching.

(ii) Planning: Planning is the most importantpart of a TV lesson. For this, the grade or theclass for which the lesson is prepared, thechronological age of the pupils and theirintelligence and abilities have to be carefullyconsidered.

Then, there is need to scrutinise the syllabuson the basis of the objective laid down andthe portions have to be chosen accordingly.Also, consideration should be given to theproblem of textbooks i.e., their worth andavailability.

Lastly, the duration of the lesson is animportant point to remember.

(iii) Quality: The quality, both in terms of thesubject matter and the teaching method,should be of the highest order.

(iv) Preparation of the Students: One of thefactors influencing learning is the ‘readiness’both mental and physical. The students canbe made mentally ready by arousing theircuriosity. This can be done in several ways,e.g., by showing fascinating experimentsrelating to the topic or by connecting thepupils’ previous experience and knowledgewith the topic. For making a child mentallyready to accept the lesson pre-telecast

activity with carefully chosen questions isessential. This requires good preparation onthe part of the classroom teacher. Also,guidance sheets and programme bookletsmeant to help the classroom teachers shouldbe pro vided with.

To ensure maximum physical readiness onthe part of the pupils they should be providedwith maximum viewing comfort. The TV setshould be placed in a suitable position, sothat every student can view it properly, in aroom specially meant for TV viewing. Theroom should have adequate lightingarrangements and comfortable seats. Thenumber of students viewing the TV should besuch that those sitting at the back may have agood view of the programme.

(v) The School Time-table: TV timings should besuch that it can be adjusted comfortablywithin the school time-table.

(vi) The TV Teacher: The TV teacher should havethe calibre and personality of the highestorder. He should be an experienced teacherwith vast knowledge. At every aspect a TVteacher should at least be equal to theclassroom teacher, if not better.

Present Position of Teaching Science

through TV

In India the school television project was launchedin the year 1961 in Delhi. The TV lessons are closelyrelated to the syllabus. The TV teacher works incollaboration with the classroom teacher. Usuallyone TV lesson per week per subject is telecast.Some of the important topics from the syllabusare chosen for TV lessons. TV lessons in scienceare broadcast for Classes VI, VII, VIII, IX and X. In

TEACHING SCIENCE THROUGH TELEVISIONTHROUGH TELEVISIONTHROUGH TELEVISIONTHROUGH TELEVISIONTHROUGH TELEVISION

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the year 1971-72, no TV lessons were broadcastfor Class XI. The TV teachers, drawn from variousschools, are mostly quite competent. Guidancesheets and programme booklets are sent to theschools concerned regularly. During the lessons,efforts are being made to use other audio-visualaids like charts, models, etc., as much as possible.

Checksheets are invited from the classroomteachers whereby they can comment on theeffectiveness of the lesson.

But in spite of such commendable efforts on thepart of the TV centre officials, it seems that theprogramme of ‘instructional TV’ has failed tomake the desired impact on the children. Thecauses are manifold.

(i) The Examination System: The mostimportant cause seems to be ourexamination. Every action of the teachers aswell as the students is oriented towardspassing the examination, even if it is at thecost of knowledge. So any portion of theeducational programme which does not haveany direct connection with the process ofsecuring marks in the examination is treatedby the teachers and students alike with scantrespect. It is quite obvious that even if therehad not been arrangements for TV lessons,the students would have passed theexaminations, the usual way, without muchdifficulty.

(ii) Lack of Good and Quality Planning: This is avery important part of the TV lesson. Beforethe students can accept the TV lesson, amental background has to be formed. This isdone by questioning. Motivation with the helpof interesting experiments, which isextremely useful in many cases, is not done

usually. Quality of the TV lessons is also,sometimes, not of the highest order - matternot being selected with care. For example, ina lesson on bleaching powder, it is perhapsuseless to show its properties, because it isexpected that in their regular classes thestudents have already seen thoseexperiments, as these are quite easy toperform. So, during such TV lessons it is notexpected that the students would beattentive.

(iii) TV Timings and the School Time-table: Oftenit is found that the school time-table doesnot correspond to the TV timings. Thismakes the pre-telecast and the follow-upactivities difficult and thus the effectivenessof the TV lesson is greatly diminished.

(iv) TV room: Many schools do not have aseparate TV room. TVs are kept in the hall orin the classrooms. So, the proper lightingarrangements which are very muchnecessary for good viewing are missing.Then, the number of students viewing thetelevision programme is in most of theschools very large, and also proper sittingarrangements for the pupils are not available.Hence, the students sitting at the back canhardly have a good view of what is going on,on the TV screen.

(v) The TV Teacher: It would be better if the TVteachers are more carefully selected, keepingin view the fact that they should be betterteachers in every respect than the averageclassroom teacher.

(vi) Guidance Sheets: Guidance sheets and theprogramme booklets are often not receivedin time and hence their purposes are lost.

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Suggestions for Increasing the

Effectiveness of TV Lessons

The students have to be made ‘mentally’ as well as‘physically’ ready, as much as possible, to get themaximum benefit out of such instructional TVprogrammes.

(i) Mental and Physical Readiness: For mentalreadiness the students have to be madecurious by (a) making proper pre-telecastactivities (this requires the availability of theguidance sheets in time and correctadjustment of the TV timings with the schooltimetable), and (b) showing some interestingand thought provoking experiments in thebeginning of the lesson, e.g. to introduce thelesson on hydrogen, experiments showingthe explosion of soap bubbles filled withhydrogen, flight of gas balloons and film onthe explosion of Hydrogen Bomb, can beused with advantage. For junior class pupils,with very little background, stress should begiven on experiments by which they are easilyawed and those which touch theirimagination, while the experiments for thehigher classes may be of such type whichdepict a problem and make them think overit. For example, the topic on the heatingeffect of current is taught in Class VIII as wellas in Class XI. For Class VIII students, theapproach towards the lesson may be madewith the help of such experiments asexploding of Gun Powder by putting a coil ofwire inside the powder and allowingelectricity to pass through it or by showingthe operation of electric furnaces, heaters,etc. For Class XI, the experiments may besomewhat thought provoking, for example,

two equal halves of a piece of resistance wireare taken - one is coiled, and then both areattached to the terminals of two batteriesseparately and a drop of paraffin wax isdropped on each piece of wire and theelectricity is allowed to pass through both ofthem. The paraffin wax will be seenevaporating very soon from the coiled wire;but not from the other one.

For maximum readiness on the part of thestudents, a TV room with proper lighting andsitting arrangements should be there and alsothe number of students viewing theprogramme should not be above 30.

(ii) Quality of the Lesson: Next comes thequestion of the ‘quality’ of the lesson. Underthe present circumstances when it is notpossible to provide more than one TV classfor each grade, the subject matter of thelesson is very important. Endeavour should bemade to clear the fundamentals of a subjectthan to cover as much portion of the syllabusas possible, e.g., in chemistry topics likeGraham’s Law and Phosphine may be omittedwhile more time may be given to thediscussion of the topics like ‘Theories ofChemical Bonding’; ‘Electrolysis and itsApplication’ and ‘Periodic Classification ofElements’.

Further, the lessons should be free fromerrors and omissions, e.g., ‘ionisation’ and‘dissociation’, these two terms are often usedin the same sense and the omissions like thetime of contact of the reacting gases with thecatalyst in the Ostwald’s process for themanufacture of nitric acid, and the reactionbetween arsenious oxide and the gelatinousferric hydroxide in the purification unit of the


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Contact Process for the manufacture ofsulphuric acid, are often found.

Models and charts should be extensivelyused; but when an actual process can beshown either by direct experimentation or bythe use of film strips then using a model,instead, would minimise the effectiveness ofthe lesson. For example, the circulation ofblood—instead of using a model to explainthe circulation process it would be bettereither to use a film showing the actualcirculatory system in a man or dissect a frogand then show its circulatory system.

(iii) Laboratory Techniques: The laboratorytechniques are totally ignored. No lessonwhich demonstrates laboratory techniques istelecast. Correct use of balance, screwgauge, microscope, etc., can easily bedemonstrated on TV. Certain manipulativeskills like bending of glass tubing, boring ofcorks, dissecting frogs, etc., are veryimportant and can be demonstrated byexperienced and skilled teachers. Theseprocedures would enable a larger number ofstudents to be benefitted because themanipulative techniques can be shown atclose range on TV.

(iv) Home Assignments: Provision for homeassignments based on TV lessons may bemade. This, automatically, would encouragestudents to watch the lessons more carefully.

(v) Tele-Club: A Tele-Club may be formed ineach school. The activities of the club may be(a) watching all the TV programmes anddiscussing and writing about them; (b)understanding the mechanism and scope ofTV; and (c) holding essay competitions on the

usefulness of various TV programmes andso on.

(vi) Parents’ Attitude: Lastly, the parents’ attitudetowards such TV instructional programmesshould be ascertained and they should beconvinced, if need be, about the usefulnessof such programmes, so that they mayencourage their children to watch suchprogrammes attentively. They may discussabout the TV lessons with their children,judge their reactions, try to remove theirdoubts, and inform the TV centre or theschool subject teachers about their findings.This will definitely inculcate among thestudents a habit of watching the TV lessonscarefully and thus being benefitted out of it.

Conclusion

About the vast scope of TV as a medium of

instruction, there is no second opinion. Educating

masses is one of our national objectives. This goal

can be reached more easily by teaching through

TV than by ordinary classroom teaching in a

school situation. The Government is quite aware

of this fact and hence in a few years’ time, a

network of TV stations is coming up in various

parts of the country. So, it is not unusual to think

that within next five years, science students in

various regions will be benefited by the

instructional TV programmes. From the

experience of organising such programmes for

Delhi TV Centre, it would be possible to chalk out

instructional programmes of the highest quality.

Hence, there is need to have an honest look at the

present position of TV teaching and thus find its

defects which, once spotted, can be removed easily.


INNOVATION IN THE TEACHING OF MATHEMATICS IN

PRIMARY SCHOOL

Sr. M. Hyacintha, A.C.Sr. M. Hyacintha, A.C.Sr. M. Hyacintha, A.C.Sr. M. Hyacintha, A.C.Sr. M. Hyacintha, A.C.C/o Loyola School

Jakhama

PB 17, Kohima, Nagaland

The tribal children of the North East have beenconsidered to be weak in mathematics. Many ofthem have even an aversion to or a fear ofmathematics. Hence, maths is still an optionalsubject. However, experience has shown thatthese children are not less intelligent than others,that their aptitude for learning mathematics is thesame as that of any other children in the rest ofthe country. The reason for their backwardness isthat perhaps maths in schools here has not beenhandled as it should have been keeping in mindthe tribal and rural background of the children.

Various attempts have been made during the pastten years to make use of the principles, and toapply these in the teaching of maths to the tribalchildren. In the process a variety of apparatus hasbeen devised and used in the classrooms withsuccess. The following conclusions have beenarrived at from the experience gained in this way:

(1) The mathematical concepts are quicklygrasped and fairly well retained when they arelearned mainly through the concrete, whenlearning maths becomes an activity of doingand learning at the same time. Hence the useof the apparatus.

(2) Brightly coloured apparatus seem to yieldbetter results as perhaps they make better andlasting impressions on the young minds.

(3) The tribals of this area, even though illiterate,seem to have a unique way of calculating –adding or subtracting. The children seem tohave inherited the genius from their parents.From experience we know that quickerlearning is possible with the use of Base-Fivefor calculations.

The exhibits are some of the apparatus usedsuccessfully as teaching aids in a few schools.They have been tried out with children beginningfrom the children of the pre-school age, wherethe whole body is involved in the learning process,to those of the Class IV age, where the child isinitiated into the beginnings of geometry throughthe concrete. The following is a list of the aids:

i) Floor discs,

ii) Flannel graph discs,

iii) Disc charts for counting,

iv) Dominoes for teaching of numbers and values,

v) Abacus for place value of numbers,

vi) Pocket boards for pattern making,

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vii) Geo boards: (a) for pattern making forlearning the 2 processes of multiplication anddivision, (b) for introduction to shapes-space-area perimeter, graphs,

viii) Attributes for learning the properties of4 different shapes and the first stage of fractions.

All these aids have been made with the locallyavailable materials. The children of this area areresourceful and dexterous as they are all of themchildren of farmers who make their own tools.The aids have been made by the students ofmiddle and high schools where such experimentsare carried out, as part of their work experienceprogramme.

Floor Discs

From experience it has been found that childrenof pre-school age can quickly grasp the conceptof values of the numbers one to ten, with the aidof this method. Not only, the eye and ear, but thewhole body is involved in this learning process.

Method : Method : Method : Method : Method : Ten cardboard discs of the samecolour are arranged on the floor in front of theclass. At the start the child stands a little awayfrom disc No. 1 - a place denoting 'zero'. The childthen steps from one disc to the next. At each dische stops and calls out the number beforeproceeding to the next disc. Care should be takenthat the steps are taken deliberately with a pauseat each, before calling out the respective numbers.From disc No.5 to disc No.6, the child does notstep, but moves with a jump using both feettogether, then proceeds step-by-step as beforeuntil disc No. 10 is reached.

Every child in the class should have at least oneturn daily for about two months with this methodof counting while the rest of the class is lined upfacing the discs — disc No.1 being placed to theleft of the class and No. 10 to the right. It is notadvisable to write the numbers 1 to 10 on the discsas this usually stops mental activity and leads tomemory learning, not concept forming. The jumpbetween discs 5 and 6 leads the child to theconcept:

Six is 5 +1; 7 is 5+2 and so on. These mentalconcepts are very helpful later on for quick andaccurate mental work.

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INNOVATIONS IN THE TEACHING OF MATHEMATICS IN PRIMARY SCHOOLMATHEMATICS IN PRIMARY SCHOOLMATHEMATICS IN PRIMARY SCHOOLMATHEMATICS IN PRIMARY SCHOOLMATHEMATICS IN PRIMARY SCHOOL

Testing :Testing :Testing :Testing :Testing : In order to find out whether thechildren are ready for the next step, the teachertakes his position facing the class with the discsin front of him. The child to be tested and the restof the class face the teacher and the discs. Theteacher then begins to call out numbers. If thechild proceeds directly to the required disc, thereis the likelihood that mental concepts have beenformed. If, on the contrary, the child is not able toidentify the disc without counting them all, then itis evident that the child requires more time for theforming of the concepts and should not proceedto the next step.

The learning of numbers up to 100 is a muchsimpler process if sufficient time is given to thisinitial stage and the class is not buried through it.Each group of succeeding ten will take about aweek. A hundred discs of alternate contrastingcolours would be ideal—red and green or red andblack—if space permits, 100 floor discs are thebest. As a playground activity, this method provesenjoyable.

Flannel Graph Discs

When floor space is not available for the learning

of number 1 to 100 the above method should be

used to teach numbers 1 to 30. Once the

groupings of tens become familiar to the child,

the teacher can switch over to the flannel graph

board. Here the discs should be of the same

colour as those of the floor discs. This is a good

classroom exercise. The discs can be easily

removed and replaced; the board itself can be

seen by the whole class; there is much

movement—of discs as well as of children who

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have to come forward and remove or replacediscs as directed by the teacher. It encourages agreat deal of concentration, alertness and mentalactivity. It is also a good testing apparatus, whichenables the teacher to judge the progress ofindividual children.

Disc Charts

Using the same arrangement of circles, and thesame colours, skip counting charts could beintroduced in the first year. It would be good tokeep the colour scheme the same for thefollowing groups:

(a) groups of tens and fives;

(b) groups of twos; fours; eights;

(c) groups of threes; sixes; nines; and

(d) an entirely different colour combination forgroups of seven.

Here again the charts are smaller, the wholemental picture becomes clearer. If the circles arecloser with no gap between five and six (only adividing line to help), the colour patterns formedby various groupings becomes quite clear and willform clearer mental pictures. This will be of greatadvantage in future work with multiplicationtables and when learning division.

Individual Disc Charts

Children are provided with individual disc chartsand are asked to colour the circles, numbersbeing called out by the teacher. Speed andaccuracy are what are aimed at. If differentcolours are used the patterns are clearly depicted.Patterns should be previously prepared by the

teacher. Patterns greatly facilitate the teacher’scorrection which can be done at a glance. Thisexercise makes the children alert to probablepatterns that emerge while they are colouring.

Geo Board

At this stage the geo board could be introduced,to supplement the learning process. Here again,the moving of coloured beads and the emergingof patterns are two important factors in theprocess of learning and of fixing the variousnumber groupings. The geo board is a plank ofwood thick 1/2" and 22 cm square. On it are nailedsmall nails—1/2" high and 2 cms apart. Across themiddle of the board and the down the middle of itare painted lines which take the place of the gapon the disc charts. This line makes for quickcalculation.

17


Pocket Boards

The aim in using these boards is three-fold:-

(a) learning the value of the numbers 1 to 20,

(b) learning the component parts of numbers, and

(c) pattern making.

The teacher places his discs on his board and thechildren copy the patterns on their boards. Thishelps concentration; careful placing of discs andselection of colours; later children are made todiscover patterns of their own, given a fixednumber. Incidentally, the children learn thecomponent parts of numbers by using two ormore colours when forming their patterns.

Dominoes

A common game which could be used effectivelyfor testing children’s knowledge of the numbersand their values. Each set consists of eleven cardsof plywood, carrying the numbers 1 to 10 andgroups of coloured dots. No two sets should besimilar. The game begins by placing the card thatcarries a group of dots and a blank. The child is

asked to place the cards in such a way that thenumber corresponds in the number of dots, untilhe arrives at a blank card. This game is self-correcting. If the child arrives at the last blankcard and still holds cards in his hand, he hasprobably made a mistake and is asked to shuffleup the cards and start all over again. Since no twosets are alike, this game is a good test of speedand accuracy, if a time limit is given.

The Decimal Abacus

This bit of apparatus could be used in the first twoyears of schooling to teach the place value ofnumbers up to 1000. A quick and sure means offixing the place value in the mind of the child is theuse of specific colours.

White—for units

Light pink—for tens

Light green—for hundreds

Red—for thousands

The colours chosen are the same as those used inthe Australian Quissinaire method.

18


The Chinese Abacus

This apparatus is helpful for calculation up to onelakh. Though it has not yet been introduced intothe classroom, individual children have taken to itreadily and easily. It seems to fit in with somemethod of calculation of the locals. The fact thateach bead on the top half stands for a group offive, does not pose a difficulty. In fact, it facilitatestheir method of calculation which seems to be ingroups of five rather than in tens.

Attributes

A set consists of:

(a) squares 4" . . . .5 each of the four colours: red,blue, green and yellow

(b) squares 2". .. do

(c) circles 4" diameter... do

(d) circles 2'’ diameter... do

(e) rectangles 4'’x 2'’ ... do

( f) rectangles 2"x 1'’... do

(g) triangles 4" (equilateral)... do

(h) triangles 2'’ (equilateral)... do

A wealth of concepts can be gained through thisset, beginning with the pre-primary stage right upto Class IV:

(a) differentiating the four basic colours,

(b) discovering 4 different shapes,

(c) discovering 2 different sizes,

(d) discovering differences in lengths, breadths,angles,

(e) first ideas of fractions, quarters, eights, thirds,sixths, and

(f) pattern making.

Geo Board (Geometry)

Much practice on these boards is essential ifchildren of the primary classes are to move tomore abstract forms of thinking in the study oftheorems, and the solving of riders. The Geoboard besides being an endless source of interest,is a simple and sure way of forming concepts.

(a) Being with plotting of points—north, south,east, west, with the help of coloured beads.

(b) Joining of points with rubber bands formingvarious kinds of lines—horizontal, vertical,perpendicular.

(c) Forming of angles with rubber bands of twocolours—one of the arms should be stationarywhile the other is moved around to form acute,obtuse, right, straight or reflex angles.

(d) The idea of square measure, perimeter,properties of various figures—3-sided, 4-sidedor more—can be discovered with the help ofrubber bands.

(e) Plotting of graphs—the x and y axis could belearned with the help of the same rubber

19


bands in the form of various games. In allthese forms of learning the stress is ondiscovering facts for themselves.

The above apparatus are designed not to teachcertain facts but to enable children to acquire and

build up concepts, discover facts and, above all, to

bring about a quickening of mental activity. These

tribal children are on the whole sluggish in their

way of thinking. Their reasoning is very slow, but

accurate and steady. One of the reasons could be

their home background: there is no colour in their

homes—no toys, no place for play—they are

strapped to their mothers’ backs during their

most formative and impressive years. Girls have

heavy loads laid on their heads from very tenderyears which perhaps is the reason why they areslower than boys, in thinking.

These learning methods can be introduced byopening crèches where the children are exposedto the influences of colour and play things. Theyare almost incapable of abstract thinking in theirearly years, but learn very quickly whenever thereis concrete to work with. For this, a variety ofopportunities should be given to them in theirearly years.

Cubic measure, liquid measure, money and timeare some of the topics that have yet to be coveredby the experiment.

The Structure of Knowledge

A valid means in selecting subject matter forstudent acquirement might emphasiseacademicians in the science disciplines choosingvital content. Thus, knowledgeable astronomers,biologists, botanists, geologists, zoologists,chemists and physicists need to agree upon keygeneralisations. The chosen conclusions mightthen be emphasised as objectives in the sciencecurriculum. Relevant learning activities guidestudents in attaining the vital ends, after whichevaluation techniques need emphasis to ascertainlearner progress.

In emphasising structural content, King andBrownell quote the following pertaining to thethinking of Jerome Bruner.

Bruner hypothesises that learning structures ofdisciplines:

Is learning how things are related.

Makes a subject more comprehensible.

Slows forgetting.

Permits reconstruction of detail through patterns.

Is the main road to transfer of training.

Narrows the gap between advanced and

elementary knowledge.

Leads to intellectual excitement.

Supplies bases for and enhances intuitive thinking.

Is the bridge to simplicity. (Therefore structures

can be taught to anybody in some honest form).

Provides a path for progression of learning in

each discipline.

Bruner further advocated that students learn to

utilise methods of inquiry as emphasised by

academicians in their academic areas of speciality.

Thus, in the science curriculum, inductive

methods of acquiring content are recommended.

Laboratory approaches need to be a definite part

of each science unit.

Why might the structure of knowledge approach

be relevant to stress?

1. Subject matter specialists have selected vital

content for student attainment. Trivia may then

be minimised in ongoing units of study.

2. By utilising methods of study advocated byscientists in their respective disciplines,learners may well glean worthwhile content as

Marlow EdigerMarlow EdigerMarlow EdigerMarlow EdigerMarlow Ediger

Professor of EducationNorth-East Missouri State UniversityKirksville, U.S.A.

With the explosion of knowledge in science, questions arise as to who should select facts, concepts, andgeneralisations for students to attain. The balance of this paper will explore diverse schools of thoughtemphasising subject matter to be emphasised in the science curriculum.

CONTENT IN THE SCIENCE CURRICULUM

well as use valid approaches in attaining majorgeneralisations.

3. Science teachers secure valuable help indeveloping the curriculum by incorporatingcontent advocated by scientists.

4. Relevant objectives may be chosen by teacherswhen incorporating structural ideas as well asmethods of inquiry used by academicians inthe world of science.

5. Science teachers can select a variety ofactivities to achieve the chosen objectives.These include laboratory methods, excursions,slides, films, filmstrips, textbooks,workbooks, supplementary reading materials,transparencies, objects, models illustrations,and drawings. The science teacher needs to bea creative being in guiding students to attainworthwhile objectives.

Reinforcement Theory

If students are successful in achievement,reinforcement is then in evidence. To achievecontinuously, students need to acquire sequentialsmall bits of vital subject matter. Attempting tomaster a larger amount of content at a specifictime is not advocated. Thus, in programmed textsor using Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI), theinvolved learner reads several sentences, respondsto a completion item, then checks his/her responsewith that given by the programmer. If the responsewas correct, reinforcement is in evidence. Ifincorrect, the student knows the correct answerand is also ready for the next item. A similar/sameapproach in programmed learning may be usedagain and again—read, respond, and check.

Woolfolk and Nicholich wrote the following:

The linear approach is often referred to asSkinnerian programming, because Skinner wasits founder and prime advocate. One of its mostnotable features is that students must activelycreate an answer, not just select one from amultiple-choice format. They cover the correctresponse until they are ready to check their ownanswer. In linear programmes, students movethrough a fixed sequence of frames designed tolead them from one concept to the next with asfew errors as possible. If students do make awrong response, they learn of their errorimmediately, see the correct answer, and move onto the next frame.

Linear programmers tend to believe that students

should make errors on no more that 5-10 per

cent of the frames. In order to keep errors at this

low level, the developers of the programmes pilot-

test the frames, identifying those frames that give

students the most trouble. These error-causing

frames are then improved or broken down into

smaller steps to make success more likely.

Why is reinforcement theory important to

emphasise?

1. Learners can be successful in almost every

sequential step in learning.

2. A small bit of context is learned before a

student checks his/her response. Thus,

misunderstanding of subject matter is

minimised. A check is made of a learner's

response before moving on to the next

sequential item.

3. The programmer, a specialist in subject matter

content, sequences content for learners.

21

CONTENT IN THE SCIENCE CURRICULUMSCIENCE CURRICULUMSCIENCE CURRICULUMSCIENCE CURRICULUMSCIENCE CURRICULUM

22


Relevant ideas are then in the offing for studentlearning.

4. Appropriate order (sequence) in learningoptimises student achievement.

5. By building on specifics in knowledge, alearner may ultimately achieve majorgeneralisation and main ideas.

Humanism and the Science Curriculum

Humanists also have much to contribute in

developing the science curriculum. A devout

humanist believes that learners should have

considerable input in ongoing lessons and units.

Teacher-pupil planning may be utilised to select

objectives, learning activities, and evaluation

procedures. Students should then perceive

increased purpose in learning. They are involved in

determining what is to be learned, the means of

learning, as well as appraising progress.

A second approach in emphasising humanism in

the science curriculum may involve the use of

learning centres. The following centres are given

as examples: audio-visual aids; models and

objects; experimentation and demonstration;

problem solving; excursions; reading and writing;

as well as a creative endeavours centre. Tasks may

be written on a card with one task card per centre.

Learners can select which sequential tasks to

pursue and which to omit. Continuous progress

on the part of each student is vital.

A third method might emphasise a contract

system. Each student with teacher guidance

develops a contract. The interests and purposes

of the involved learner are involved in developing

the contract. Once agreed upon, the learner and

the instructor sign the agreement with the due

date of requirements attached. The goals of

learning are decided upon cooperatively by the

student and the involved teacher.

A fourth method of stressing the psychology of

humanism emphasises the teacher writing and

discussing listed topics for students to pursue.

The topics listed on the chalkboard reflect subject

matter that the students may learn. For example,

if ten questions are listed on the chalkboard,

chosen by the teacher, the student may complete

any five as a minimum requirement.

Pertaining to humanistic education, Combs

wrote:

There are two frames of reference for looking at

human behaviour available to us. One of these is

the external or objective approach familiar to

most of us as the traditional view of American

psychology. Seen from this frame of reference

behaviour is described from the point of view of

the outside observer, someone looking on at the

process. Its classic expression is to be found in

the various forms of stimulus-response

psychology which seeks the explanation of

behaviour in the observable forces exerted upon

the individual. The perceptual psychologist takes a

different view. He seeks to understand the

behaviour of people from the point of view of the

behaviour himself. His is a phenomenological

understanding of human behaviour, emphasising

the meaning of events to the person.

Perceptual psychology is basically a field theory

and its primary principle is this: All behaviour,

without exception, is a function of the behaviour's

23

perceptual field at the instant of behaving. I amusing the term perceptual here in its broadestsense as practically synonymous with meaning.Thus, the individual’s behaviour is seen as thedirect consequence, not of the fact or stimuluswith which he is confronted, but the meaning ofevents in his peculiar economy.

Inherent in humanism are the following tenets:

1. students need to become proficient indecision-making skills.

2. self-fulfilment on the part of the involvedstudent is significant to emphasise inpersonally choosing what to learn.

3. learners feel increasingly secure and developfeelings of belonging in a humane learningenvironment.

4. each student perceives significance inlearning. The teacher cannot determinerelevance for learners.

5. sequence in learning resides within thestudent, not with teacher determined contentfor students acquisition.

Conclusion

There are selected philosophies of educationwhich might well provide guidance in developingthe science curriculum. The following arerecommendable philosophies to consider, adopt,or modify:

1. structural ideas identified by academicianswhich students may achieve inductively ontheir own unique levels of understanding.

2. reinforcement theory with sequentialprogrammed steps of subject matter to beacquired by students. Success in learning isinherent, thus providing for reinforcing(rewarding) of desired achievement.

3. humanism which advocates learners choosingsequential content within a flexible structure.Students input are involved in selecting objectives,learning activities and evaluation procedures.

Teachers and supervisors need to study andanalyse diverse philosophies with the intent ofselecting criteria which guide each student toachieve optimally in the science curriculum.

HASS, GLEN. (Ed.). 1965. Curriculum Planning: A New Approach. Fourth Edition, Boston: Allyn and Bacon,Inc., 1983. Contains “Some Basic Concepts in Perceptual Psychology” – from an address presented atthe American Personnel and Guidance Association.

KING, ARTHUR R., JR and JOHN A. BROWNELL. 1966. The Curriculum and the Disciplines of Knowledge.John Wiley and Sons. New York.

WOOLFOLK, ANITA and LORRAINE MCCUNE NICOLICH. 1980. Educational Psychology for Teachers. EnglewoodCliffs, Prentice-Hall, Inc., New Jersey.

CONTENT IN THE SCIENCE CURRICULUMSCIENCE CURRICULUMSCIENCE CURRICULUMSCIENCE CURRICULUMSCIENCE CURRICULUM

References

During the past three decades or so, India hasbeen struggling hard to achieve universalisation ofelementary education. While considerableprogress has been achieved in terms of creatingan infrastructure, that is, in terms of providing aschool within walking distance and in terms ofensuring that there is at least one teacher availableper school, the target of achieving universalisationhas been eluding us all the time. The aims ofachieving 100 per cent literacy, of ensuring 100per cent enrolment in Class I, and of retaining allthe enrolled pupils for at least four or five years,all seem hopelessly beyond realisation.

At this juncture when we are passionatelydiscussing the new policy on education, and whenfor the first time in our history we have acquiredpowerful technologies like satellitecommunication and home computers, it would bevery relevant and meaningful to discuss the newconcerns in curriculum development in scienceand mathematics, in terms of the explicitlydeclared national goals and objectives. The briefnote aims at listing some of these concerns withthe hope that these will be reflected in curriculumdevelopment.

Equality of Educational Opportunity

While the question of physical access seems to

have been solved, we are far from achieving

equality of educational opportunity in its true

sense. The classroom proceedings, instruction

and instructional materials, the system of

examination, and the school timings, hardly take

note of the changing pupil profile. The first

generation learner, unable to make progress in

this strange inhospitable place called ‘school’,

soon drops out. The first task of the primary

school is to realise the fact that the first

generation learners are not as “ready for school”

as the traditional learners, and need a pedagogy

for overcoming this hurdle. While considerable

lip service has been paid to this problem, little has

been done to change the curriculum in teacher

training institutions to make the teachers aware

of this specific problem. Even field tested

methodologies developed by groups like the

Kishor Bharati in Madhya Pradesh and the Homi

Bhabha Centre for Science Education in

Maharashtra, are not considered for

incorporating in syllabi for colleges of education.

V.G. KulkarniV.G. KulkarniV.G. KulkarniV.G. KulkarniV.G. Kulkarni

Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research

Colaba, Bombay

VITAL CONCERNS IN CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT IN

SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

25

Research findings are applauded and promptly

shelved. Something has to be done to change this

if the concept of equality has to go beyond

‘throwing the gates open’ and lead to the

establishing of equity.

Improving Rural Schools

The quality of education available to the common

man will depend upon the quality of typical

schools catering to the vast majority of our

population. Rural schools as well as schools in

metropolitan areas catering to the weaker

sections of the society continue to be poor.

Almost the entire grant available to these schools

is consumed by teachers’ salaries, leaving little for

laboratories, equipment, consumables, etc. A

policy directive changing the grant-in-aid pattern

must be issued and implemented on a priority

basis. Otherwise we will continue to provide

excellent education to the elites whose children

will make full use of facilities in rich schools, enter

institutions of higher learning, etc., while the rest

of the population is at best fed with poor education.

Contents of the Compulsory Package

‘Science for all’ is yet another slogan that needs to

be studied carefully. If science (and mathematics)

is to be made a compulsory subject, what is the

content of science which every citizen must have?

Unlike in developed countries where children are

‘humoured’ in school up to the age of 18, and are

exposed to a large number of gadgets in a

technology-oriented environment, school drop-

outs in India occur fairly early. These drop-outs

are not only not exposed to any technology; they

are also denied an opportunity to get exposed touseful language behaviour which would enablethem to undertake learning at a later stage.Science is expected to provide the individual withlatest information regarding environment,properties of materials, new processes, etc.,besides giving tools for (a) further learning,(b) manipulating the environment, (c) entering andcontinuing in a technical profession, and(d) coping with continuously changing and everadvancing technical world. In other words,science is expected to give the individual a newkind of literacy enabling him/her to function in anenvironment dominated by S&T, and to offersome insurance against being taken for a ride. Ido not think we have identified such a package.Our curriculum for the primary school continuesto be based on a pipeline approach (preparingstudents for the secondary school), ignoring theharsh reality that primary education is ‘primary’for very few, and is terminal for most.

The Non-formal Stream

It is recognised that formal education may notreach everyone and that alternatives like the non-formal stream must be considered for achievingthe target of universalisation. However, non-formal education as it is practiced today lacksorganisation, and is an alternative to total absenceof any education. It is an alternative to zero andnot to formal education. Firstly, it aims at (andstops there) giving literacy in the sense ofencoding and decoding letters, but does notensure that students acquire readingcomprehension. Secondly, it takes students onlyas far as common sense would take them, anddoes not introduce them to the faculty of critical

VITAL CONCERNS IN CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT IN SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICSSCIENCE AND MATHEMATICSSCIENCE AND MATHEMATICSSCIENCE AND MATHEMATICSSCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

26


and abstract thinking. Considerable R&D needsto be undertaken if one wants to develop apedagogy for imparting these skills in the non-formal mode. It is a pity that this aspect is beingtotally ignored.

Vocationalisation

The importance of introducing a vocationalstream capable of catering to the bulk of ourpopulation has been mentioned repeatedly.However, one must realise that vocationaleducation is expensive; it requires considerableresources to establish a vocational institute. Also,the recurring costs are higher than those involvedin non-vocational institutes. It is difficult to seebudgetary provisions made on a realistic basis,either in state budgets or in our national budget.Vocationalisation will not occur; we will have topay for it.

Fig. 1

There is yet another factor which is very

important. Vocationalisation must be

distinguished from professional education like

engineering and medicine leading to a degree

(and to a lucratice career). Students are unlikely

to opt for a vocational stream if this option

means burning their boats and losing all

chances to enter the university or the

professional stream. In that case the steaming

would imply ‘vocationalisation for the poor, and

professional education for the elite’. The two

models of streaming, one for India and the other

practiced in Korea, are worth studying in this

context. The consequences of these two models

are obvious.

Fig. 2

27

New Technologies

New technologies like the satellite communicationand the home computer are now available in India.Considerable progress is yet to be achieved interms for providing an effective E-TV networkwhile computers have just arrived. However, thereis an aspect of national policy involved in theutilisation of these technologies. How do weperceive the role of the new technology? Are we,as a nation, committed to use these to overcomedifferences arising out of unfortunate socio-economic-cultural disparities, and to bring aboutdemocratisation of education in the true sense?Such a commitment has two major implications:

(a) The average (typical) school and the school inrural or inaccessible areas must getprecedence over the elite school in getting thefacilities installed. This is not easy. Bydefinition, maintenance facilities are notavailable where the technology is needed mosturgently. A systems approach involving theentire community will have to be adopted toreach the typical school, to install and maintainthe equipment, and to train the potential usersto derive the maximum benefit from thesefacilities. In the absence of such acommitment, the facilities will go to those whocan afford them, with the predictable result ofwidening the gap.

(b) If the typical school is to get this priority, thesoftware for the technology should begenerated to meet the requirements ofstudents studying in such schools. An all-outeffort will have to be made to understandhurdles that prevent concept formation and toprepare software accordingly. Buying

software from the developed countries orcopying it with only marginal changes, is sureto lead to disaster. Also a stage has comewhen it is necessary to take deliberate steps tomake software available in Indian languages.“Why should the interface between an Indianand technology (of any kind) be in English?” Itis not so in Japan or in any of the developedcountries in the west which are smaller in sizethan a typical state in India. The whole conceptof Indian scripts, Devanagari or others, beingunsuitable for being used as an interface hasbeen blown to pieces by examples from Korea,Japan and China.

Key Schools

The documents on new policy mention keyschools to cater for talented students. One hopesthat eventually, within a decade or so, a key schoolwould be set up in every district in India. On theother hand, as one wathches the slow progress,one begins to wonder whether the entire schemeis going to be restricted to a few show-pieces.Also, identifying an already established schoolwith considerable reputation, and giving it thestatus of a key school would becounterproductive. This trick may boost the totalnumber of ‘key schools’ in the country, but thereturns would only be commensurate with theinvestment involved in changing labels.

In any case, even assuming for the sake ofargument that a large number of key schoolswould be set up, one should be concerned aboutspecial curricula for these schools. Should oneaim at accelerating the talented students throughnormal school syllabi, or should one provide a


28


greater width and wider perspective so as to

provide additional avenues to the extra intellectual

capabilities of talented children? If so, how does

one go about it? These are real problems that

need considerable thought. One cannot merely

invest in brick and mortar and hope that all other

problems would sort themselves out.

Values in Education

Science and technology generate their own value

systems. For example, S&T have placed in the

hands of man extremely powerful tools for

manipulating the environment. There are wise and

not-so-wise ways of doing it. Also, for the first

time in history, man can do much more than

hoping and praying for the well-being of mankind.

We have all the technology for providing clean

drinking water and health services to our villages.

However, one sees that 80 per cent people live in

villages while 80 per cent doctors practice curative

medicine in cities. Why is it that these aspects are

not reflected in our curriculum? Certain priorities

like reserving copper for taking electricity to the

villages, not depending entirely on artificial fibres

when we grow so much cotton, keeping public

places clean, unpolluted and accessible to all, and

teaching preventive medicine in schools, do not

find a place in science curricula. This aspect needs

immediate attention.

Utilising Field-tested Methodologies

There are several groups in the country who areaddressing themselves to some of theseimportant concerns. It should be the endeavourof national bodies like the NCERT to take the

initiative and explore the possibilities as well asappropriate ways and means to incorporateresearch findings of these groups in nationalcurricula. For example, the Homi Bhabha Centrefor Science Education has developed a package ofinexpensive remedial measure to boost thescholastic achievement of students coming fromweaker sections of the society. This package hasbeen field-tested and is so inexpensive that it canbe incorporated in the regular school instruction aswell as in teacher training institutions. Othergroups like the Kishor Bharti have developedmethods of integrating science education withrural developmental and awareness. One of thefront task scientists in our country has consideredit worthwhile to stay in a village in the Pune districtin Maharashtra to develop a full-fledged course inappropriate technology, capable of boosting theearning capacity of school drop-outs. Why is it thatthese experiments, despite their proven merit, donot evoke any response from relevant quarterseven when research groups with high credentialspresent them convincingly and repeatedly?Institutions that should be looking out for suchexperiments, become hurdles to be crossed orignored. If curriculum reforms are not a singleshot affair, and are expected to be an ongoingfeature of our educational system, and if these‘reforms’ are expected to improve the quality ofeducation, national institutions in charge ofeducation must develop sensitivity to innovations.

Give us the Tools

Some of the research findings have demonstratedthe importance of giving tools rather thaninformation and skills in schools. For example,tools of learning like surveys, data collection,

29

collecting and classifying specimens, studyingopen-ended questions, are shown to be veryeffective in boosting the scholastic achievement ofeven the underprivileged school children.Similarly, making a deliberate attempt atimproving reading comprehension has also beenshown to be strikingly effective. Now that we aregoing through the process of curriculum revision,we should take cognisance of these findings andmake an attempt to incorporate them.

Fig. 3

In a large scale experiment undertaken by HBCSE,

it has been shown that simplifying the language of

exposition in science textbooks, not only leads to

improved performance of students and to much

greater teacher-pupil interaction, but also to

reducing the difference in performance arising

out of differences in home backgrounds. Since

this finding has considerable social significance it

is presented graphically. It would be a good idea

to examine the textbooks for unnecessary

linguistic difficulties and to simplify the language

wherever possible.

The advantages of preparing an expanded version

of the syllabus, mentioning specific objective, pre-

requisites assumed, relevance to life, values to be

highlighted, and, above all, indicating the end

points beyond which the book would not go, were

demonstrated in a collaborative programme for

writing science textbooks. Since NCERT had

taken the initiative in this programme, it would

not be unfair to expect the NCERT not to ignore

this very useful finding.


Among all the national resources, the creativepotential of its human resources play the motiveforce for the exploitation of other resources. Ifthis potential is utilised properly, other resourcesget exploited easily and quickly. Thus, theconsequent need for ever wider use of humaningenuity is being felt very much by every nation.But unless its identification and properdevelopment is ensured, the very expectation of itsmaximum utilisation will prove deceptive andimaginary. As such, the research on identificationof creativity, especially ‘scientific creativity’, hasbeen drawing more and more attention in this ageof science and technology. Now the problem thatarises is: Can we identify the scientifically creativeyoungsters?

What is Creativity?

The usual method for estimating the intellectualpotential of a person is the calculation of his I.Q.But the notion that the traditional kinds ofintelligence tests measure all that is worth-

knowing about a person’s intellectual functioning

has been challenged by many researchers. It has

been pointed out that the kinds of intelligence-

tests commonly in use these days concentrate on

convergent thinking and ignore divergent thinking

which is considered to be of great importance for

creativity. Thus, there is an increasing realisation

of the shortcomings of intelligence-tests in the

sense that they sample only a narrow band of the

total range of intellectual abilities. Hence, the need

for a special kind of tool capable of measuring the

most important aspect of intellect called

‘creativity’ is now being felt much. Such a tool

must encompass the aspects of divergent

thinking. According to Guilford (1956), “Divergent

thinking is a kind of mental operation in which

thinking proceeds in different directions,

sometimes searching, sometimes seeking variety

and is opposite to convergent production where

the information leads to one right answer or to a

recognised best or conventional answer” (p. 269).

The unique feature of divergent production is that

it produces a number of answers. Here, the

IDENTIFICATION OF SCIENTIFICALLY CREATIVE YOUNGSTERS

ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS

Dr. Chhotan SinghDr. Chhotan SinghDr. Chhotan SinghDr. Chhotan SinghDr. Chhotan SinghNational Council of Educational Research and TrainingNew Delhi

Creativity has been interpreted differently by different researchers. It is a complex concept encompassing awide spectrum of activities. Now by putting prefix “Scientific” to an already complex concept, a new dimensionis added to it. Hence, the problem arises: what is meant by ‘scientific creativity’? Has scientific creativity somespecialities of its own which are different from other types of creativity? This problem can be best attacked bylooking into the very nature of science and to choose what special factors or components characterise thescientific creativity.

31

examinee produces a variety of responses, ratherthan selects the appropriate one from among aset of choices presented to him. In doing so, hemay produce a novel response. It is the relativevariety and novelty of the products found indivergent production that links this category ofability basically with creativity.

According to Torrance, E.P. (1962), “Creativity isthe process of becoming sensitive to problems,deficiencies, gaps in knowledge, missingelements, forming ideas or hypothesis andcommunicating the result, possibly modifying andretesting the hypothesis”.

Stein, M.I. (1963) says, “Creativity is a process ofhypothesis formation, hypothesis testing, and thecommunication of results”. He further says thatfor empirical research, the definition of creativityis “that process which results in a novel work thatis accepted as tenable, useful of satisfying by agroup at a point of time” (p. 218).

Mednick, B.A. (1962) is of the opinion that “creativethinking process may be defined as the formingof associative elements into new combinationswhich either meet specified requirements or arein same way more useful. The more mutuallyremote the elements of the new combinations, themore creative is the process” (p. 220).

Wallach and Kogan (1965) in an experimentalapproach to be nature of creativity, conceive of it interms of the number of associational responses andthe uniqueness of these responses.

Bybee, Rodger W. (1972) is, too, of the view that“creativity is the ability to view the familiar in anuncommon way to make changes ormodifications, to see numerous possibilities in asingle object and to synthesise isolated schemes

is a unique and novel way. The process or productis useful to either self or society” (p. 22).

What is Special about Scientific

Creativity?

Thus, it is evident that creativity has been

interpreted differently by different researchers. It

is a complex concept encompassing a wide

spectrum of activities. Now by putting prefix

“Scientific” to an already complex concept, a new

dimension is added to it. Hence, the problem

arises: What is meant by ‘Scientific creativity’? Has

scientific creativity some specialities of its own

which are different from other types of creativity?

This problem can be best attacked by looking into

the very nature of science and to choose what

special factors or components characterise the

scientific creativity.

We know science as a system of knowledge, the

structural elements of which are the informational

facts gathered by observation and experiments.

The form of science is established by the

organisation of these facts into systems,

generalisations and theories. Probably, the first

step in the organisation of knowledge beyond

simple observation is the process of classification.

It is also known as analysing. Although, there are

limits on the usefulness of classification, the

sorting of observation into categories is necessary

and even very effective first step in establishing the

patterns and systems of knowledge that lead to

understanding.

The next step in system formation is a search for

an ‘explanation’ of the classified information. This

is an intellectual non-experimental function. Here,

IDENTIFICATION OF SCIENTIFICALLY CREATIVE YOUNGSTERS - ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS

32


we advance a postulate which most often takesthe form of a model. This is termed ashypothesising. It is also known as synthesising orgeneralising. And if we are scientific about thisstage, we maintain an attitude of acepticism and afeeling of tentativeness about the postulate. Theimportant point is that all postulates (hypothesis)of science are constantly evolving sufferingmodifications, additions, and deletions andsometimes total destruction. The moving force ofthis change is the constant test of experiment.Thus the steps involved in scientific method seemto be the following: (1) statement of the problem,(2) collection of data by observation orexperimentation, (3) analysing the data; (4)hypothesising, (5) testing the hypothesis, and (6)drawing conclusion.

Hadamard (1945) has suggested that the scientificprocess consists of the construction of ideasfollowed by the combing and examination of a fewuseful combinations consciously produced. Thedistinguishing characteristic of science is,therefore, to relate the facts of the investigationand to weave them into a comprehensible whole.The construction of this web out of facts andideas, either remotely associated or immediatelyrelated, is the most productive area for creativeendeavour in science.

As regards process aspect Singh, C. (1976) is ofthe opinion that scientific creativity appears to bevery much different from creativity in other areas.As an example for a person to be creative, hemust be highly imaginative. The abundance offantasy is the prime requisite for him. So is thecase with an artist. On the contrary, moreimagination and fantasy alone will not be of much

help to a creative scientist. Though speculationand bold guess are sometimes needed by acreative scientist to solve his problem, but thisalone will leave him in complete wildernessleading nowhere near his goal. To achievesomething novel, creative out of his speculation,he must be capable of observing minutely,analysing, elaborating and hypothesising.

What Scientific Creativity Test Should

Search for?

A good tool for measuring potential in scientific

creativity should therefore, search for novelty in all

these abilities required by a scientist. It is also to

be noted here that novelty is facilitated by the

production of a large number of ideas especially

of different kinds. Thus, the consideration of

fluency and flexibility as criteria for evaluating

creative potential in the areas of science also,

seems to be justified. However, to my mind, all the

three criteria: novelty, flexibility and fluency are not

equally important. Here, they stand in their

respective position in decreasing order of

importance and therefore, some relative

weightage to each of them appears to be rational.

In view of the above discussion, properly loaded

factors of novelty, flexibility and fluency applied to

different processes involved in scientific method

of problem-solving should be a good measure of

scientific creativity.

Further, the evaluation of potential for scientific

creativity particularly in youngsters is faced with

additional problems: Identification of these

abilities associated with scientific method of

33

problem-solving which are easily exhibitable byyoungsters as well as adequately measurable.Thus, while developing a tool capable of effectively

measuring potential for scientific creativity amongyoungsters, one must keep in mind all theimplications mentioned above.

References

BYBEE, RODGER, W. 1972. “Creativity, Children and Elementary Science”. Science and Children. 9.

GUILFORD, J.P. 1956. “The Structure of Intellect”. Psychological Bulletin. 53.

MEDNICK, B.A. 1962. “The Associative Basis of Creativity”. Psychological Review. 69.

SINGH, CHHOTAN. 1976. “Scientific Creativity Test for High School Students”, Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation,University of Ranchi. (India).

STEIN, M.I. 1963. “A Transactional Approach to Creativity”. In Taylor C.W. and Barron. F. (Eds.), ScientificCreativity: Its Recognition and Development. John Wiley & Sons Inc. Now York.

TORRANCE, E.P. 1962. Guiding Creative Talent. M.J. Prentice Hall. Englewood Cliffs,

WALLACH, M.A. and KOGAN. 1965. Modes of Thinking in Young Children. Holt, Rinehart andWinston. New York.

IDENTIFICATION OF SCIENTIFICALLY CREATIVE YOUNGSTERS - ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS

Teachers and supervisors need to evaluate andrevise the curriculum to provide for diverse needs,interests and abilities of learners in the school andclass setting. Each pupil needs guidance toachieve optimally.

There are numerous techniques to appraise pupilachievement in the science curriculum. Traditionaltechniques which seemingly have stood the test oftime include:

1. Teacher-written test items. These include true-false, multiple choice, matching, completion,and essay items.

2. Checklists and rating scales. Specificbehaviours are listed and each learner ischecked (on the checklist) if more guidance isneeded to achieve that objective, or anumerical rating (5 = excellent, 4 = good, 3 =average, 2 = below average, and 1 = poor) isgiven in terms of perceived performance on arating scale.

3. Appraising learner products. Each writtenpaper, art project, or construction item may beappraised in terms of desired criteria.

4. Teacher observation and anecdotal records.What the teacher observes as representativelearner behaviour may be recorded in abehavioural journal. The date should also belisted with the event.

Additional appraisal procedures will be discussed

in the remainder of the paper.

Instructional Management Systems

A school may utilise Instructional Management

Systems (IMS) to appraise pupil progress. To

develop an IMS takes considerable time and effort

on the part of teachers and supervisors in the

school/class setting. Generally, at least a year

should be given to writing up the diverse sections

of an IMS before its implementation. The very first

step to follow in developing an IMS is to write

precise measurable objectives for pupils to attain

in each curriculum area through the sequential

years of schooling.Thus, for each grade level and

in each curriculum area, there are a certain

number of precise objectives that a pupil must

achieve. To complete a grade level, a learner then

needs to finish the identified number of

measurable ends for each subject matter area

studied. These are minimal essentials. If a pupil

does not complete that which is required for a

specific grade level in a given school year, he/she

must satisfactorily finish the omitted parts during

the next school year. As soon as these have been

completed, the learner might then work on

measurably stated objectives for the new grade

INNOVATIVE EVALUATION PROCEDURES IN SCIENCE

Marlow EdigerMarlow EdigerMarlow EdigerMarlow EdigerMarlow EdigerDivision of EducationNortheast Missouri State UniversityKirksville 63501, U.S.A.

level. Gifted and talented learners as well asnumerous average achievers need to makecontinuous progress, and thus achieve moreobjectives than the minimum essentials.

The classroom teacher chooses learning activitiesfor pupils to achieve stated objectives. After this,the teacher measures if a learner has beensuccessful in goal attainment. If so, he/sheprogresses to the next sequential objectives. Ifnot, the teacher needs to utilise the same or amodified strategy of teaching to guide the learnerto be successful in goal attainment.

Advantages given for advocating IMS to evaluatepupil achievement include the following:,

1. The teacher can be certain if a pupil has/hasnot attained any one specific measurableobjective.

2. Pupils may know ahead of time what isexpected in terms of precise learnings.

3. Parents may also get to know specifically whattheir offsprings are to learn.

4. Verifiable results may be given to supervisorsand other responsible persons desiringknowledge of learner progress.

5. A system of accountability of teachers is inevidence if empirical evidence is available foreach learner’s achievement. Teachers may beheld accountable for pupils attaining the pre-specified objectives.

Disadvantages given for IMS include the following:

1. It is difficult to pre-plan objectives for pupils toachieve. The objectives may need to be pre-planned a semester or entire school yearbefore their implementation. .

2. Learner having achieved an objective (or

objectives) does not guarantee, by any means,

the retention of subject matter contained in

each end.

3. Emerging objectives in terms of questions and

comments come from learners as lessons and

units progress. These ends may be perceived

by pupils more vital as compared to adult

predetermined measurable goals.

4. Pupils sequence objectives rather than adults.

Thus, sequential learnings accrue in the minds

of individual learners rather than instructors.

5. Precise measurable goals might measure trivial

learnings, such as specific facts, rather than

worth while values, attitudes, problem-solving

skills as well as critical and creative thinking.

Preston and Herman1 wrote the following involving

the use of behavioural objectives:

Despite the logical appeal of behavioural

objectives, many educators and psychologists do

not accept them as a final solution of either the

curriculum or the evaluation problem. J.M.

Stephens, in an intensive analysis of the process

of schooling, found that it consists largely of

spontaneous, unsophisticated teacher behaviours

and that the teacher’s effect upon pupil learning is

not likely to be improved by most deliberate

innovations, including the insistence in some

quarters upon behavioural objectives. He

contends that teachers who have a lively interest in

a subject, but who slight objectives even

outrageously, would probably bring about greater

subject matter learning than teachers whose

interest is less but who are punctilious about

specifying objectives.

35

INNOVATIVE EVALUATION PROCEDURES IN SCIENCEIN SCIENCEIN SCIENCEIN SCIENCEIN SCIENCE

36


Learning Centres and Evaluation

Learning centres may be developed in severalways. The teacher may choose the materials andtasks for each learning centre in the classroom.Or, pupils with teacher guidance might planconcrete and semi-concrete items for each centreas well as the related learning experiences. Ineither approach, learners need to sequentiallychoose tasks to complete. There needs to be anadequate number of experiences in order thatlearners may omit those tasks perceived as notbeing purposeful or of personal interest. In ahumane curriculum, described by humanism as apsychology of learning, pupils need to choose andmake decisions. The teacher should not dictateobjectives, learning activities, and evaluationprocedures. Rather, pupils individually need toachieve self-actualisation.

A.H. Maslow2, late leading humanist, indicates thefollowing requirements which need satisfying inorder that learners may truly achieve self-actualisation.

1. physiological (food, rest, shelter and water)

2. safety (security from danger)

3. belonging (love and affection)

4. esteem (recognition and status)

5. self-actualisation (satisfy one’s potential)

Combs, et al3. state the following pertaining tohumanism:

Perceptual psychology is more than theexpression of the humanist movement. It is also aframe of reference specially designed to deal witha question raised by the movement and tocontribute to its implementation in the solution of

human problems. The humanist movementrequires a person-centred psychology, onecapable to dealing not only with behaviour, butwith the meanings and perceptions that constitutethe internal experience of persons as well.Perceptual psychology is uniquely suited toprovide this kind of understanding. So it is thatthe authors of this volume conceive of perceptualpsychology as both the expression of thehumanist movement and the beginnings of ascience through which the humanness of personscan be more adequately understood and thefulfilment of human potential more adequatelyachieved.

Knowledge is subjective, not objective, to thelearner. Thus, adequate emphasis needs to begiven to art, music, drama, literature, creativewriting, and the social studies at diverse learningcentres in the class setting. Adequate emphasismust also be given to subject matter which ismore objective in structure, such as science andmathematics.

Advantages given for utilising humanism, as apsychology of education, to appraise learnerprogress include the following:

1. Open-ended flexible means may be utilised toappraise progress. With pupils being involvedin choosing objectives, learning activities, andevaluation procedures, ample considerationneeds to be placed upon the quality and abilityof learners to make decisions.

2. Pupils must have personal needs met to dowell in the school/class setting. Thus, adequatestress must be placed in the evaluationprocess upon meeting needs of learners toachieve self-realisation.

37

3. Learners need to have adequate knowledge ofthe self and of others. Thus, a qualityevaluation programme needs to appraise,pupil’s increasing knowledge, skills, andattitudes in the affective or attitudinaldimensions.

Disadvantages given for humanistic evaluationprocedures include the following:

1. Learners are adequately mature to makechoices and decisions in the school/classsetting. The school’s role is to get pupils readyfor adult roles in society.

2. A teacher determined curriculum may meetthe personal needs of many learners, especiallyif learning activities are based on motivatingachievement.

3. A teacher determined curriculum can besequentially arranged so that pupils experiencecontinuous progress, thus aiding in effectivedevelopment of pupils.

IMS versus Humanism

Teachers and supervisors need to evaluate, rathercontinuously, appraisal procedures utilised toascertain learner achievement. Traditional meansexist such as using teacher written test items andrecorded teacher observations of learnerinvolvement in ongoing learning activities.

Relatively recent evaluation procedures have alsoappeared on the horizon. These includeinstructional management systems involvingbehaviourism, as a psychology of learning. TheMissouri Department of Elementary andSecondary Education in their recent brochureentitled Instructional Management. A Priority for

Missouri Schools during the 1980s, lists thefollowing criteria that effective schools follow:

1. High expectations for learning. Teachers and

administrators expect a high level of

achievement by all students and communicate

their expectations to students and parents. No

students are expected to fail, and the school

assumes responsibility for seeing that they

don’t.

2. Strong leadership by building principals. The

building principal is an instructional leader

who participates in all phases of instruction.

The principal is a visible leader of instruction,

not just an office-bound administrator.

3. Emphasis on instruction in the basic skills.

Since mastery of the basic skills is essential to

learning in all other subjects, the effective

schools make sure that students at least

master the basic skills.

4. Clear-cut instructional objectives. Each teacher

has specific instructional objectives within the

overall curriculum which are communicated to

students, parents and the general public. In

effective schools, teachers and administrators –

not textbooks –are clearly in charge of the

curriculum and teaching activities.

5. Mastery learning and testing for mastery.

Students are taught, tested, retaught and

retested to the extent necessary to assure

mastery of important objectives. Students are

not taught more difficult objectives until

prerequisite objectives have been mastered.

6. School discipline and climate. The effective

schools may not be shiny and modern, but

they are at least safe, orderly and free of

distractions. All teachers and students as well

INNOVATIVE EVALUATION PROCEDURES IN SCIENCEIN SCIENCEIN SCIENCEIN SCIENCEIN SCIENCE

38


as parents, know the school’s expectationsabout behaviour and discipline.

Humanism has its supporters in the educationalarena. Self-actualisation is a key concept in thethinking of humanists. Maslow4 wrote the following:

Self-actualisation is defined in various ways, but asolid core of agreement is perceptible. All

definitions accept or imply: (a) acceptance andexpression of the inner core or self, i.e.,actualisation of these latent capabilities andpotentialities, “ fully functioning”, availability of thehuman and personal essence; and (b) minimalpresence of ill health, neurosis, psychosis, or lossof diminuation of the basic human and personalcapacities.

COMBS, ARTHUR W. et al. 1976. Perceptual Psychology: A humanistic Approach to the Study of Persons.Harper and Row Publishers, page xiii, New York.

MASLOW, A.H. 1954. Motivation and Personality. Harper and Row Publishers, New York.

MASLOW, A.H. 1962. “Some Basic Propositions of a Growth and Self-Actualization Psychology”, Perceiving,Behaving, Becoming, 1962 Yearbook. Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and CurriculumDevelopment, page 51.

PRESTON, RALPH C. and Jr. HERMAN, L. WAYNE. 1981. Teaching Social Studies in the Elementary School. Fifthedition. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, pages 12 and 13. New York:

References

Introduction

This paper will review the effect of scienceclassroom variables on student-attitude towardsscience. There is evidence to the fact thatstudents indeed develop a better attitude towardsscience through learning by experience (Kyle,Bonnstetter, McCloskey and Fults, 1985). Theclassroom variables that provide opportunities forexperience-based science learning are exemplarcurricula, laboratory, hands-on discoverymethods, laboratory resources, the teacher andthe teacher’s attitude, etc. Since the relationshipbetween these variables and attitude is covert, onlyby utilising attitude testing instruments student-attitude towards science is measured.

Student-attitude towards science. According toGauld (1982), and Haladyna and Shaughnessy(1982) there are two ways the term “attitude” isdefined with respect to science. These are:scientific attitude, and attitude towards science.Scientific attitude refers to approaches utilised for

problem solving, decision making and scientificthinking by acting primarily on evidence. Attitudetowards science, on the other hand, may addressa person’s affective domain-specific feelings, suchas views, judgements, thoughts and opinionstowards science. For example, discovery learningcould affect a student’s attitude towards science(Kyle, et al., 1985).

Attitude testing instruments. Generally attitudetesting instruments are questionnaires designedto determine opinions. For example, in the“Science Attitude Questionnaire” developed byOkibukola and Adeneyi (1987), students wouldselect the most appropriate answers reflectingtheir attitudes towards science learning. In the“Projective Test of Attitudes” (Lowery, 1966), aninterviewer will make an assessment of student-attitude based upon his or her personal interviewwith the students. In the “Preference andUnderstanding” (Vargas-Gomez and Yager, 1987)developed from the National Assessment ofEducational Progress Survey (1978), there are

CLASSROOM VARIABLES AND STUDENT-ATTITUDE

TOWARDS SCIENCE

David D. KumarDavid D. KumarDavid D. KumarDavid D. KumarDavid D. KumarNational Centre for Science Teaching and LearningOhio State University, 104 Research Centre1314, Kinnear Road, Columbus, OH 43212, U.S.A.

A review of empirical studies reveals a positive relationship between several science classroom variablesand student-attitude towards science. The classroom variables include exemplar science curricula,laboratory- centred instruction, laboratory resources and classroom environment. However, there is noconclusive research evidence to establish a relationship between these classroom variables and student-attitude due to discrepancies in the attitude testing instruments utilised.

40


separate statements representing student-attitude. The students will choose appropriateLikert type numerical ranks which follow eachstatement to express the degree to which theyagree or disagree with the statement. Foradditional information on attitude testinginstruments refer to Kyle, Penick and Shymansky(1980), National Assessment of EducationalProgress (1978), Lowery (1966), Simpson andTroost (1982), Osgood, Suci and Tannenbaum(1967) and Remmers (1960).

Review of Empirical Studies

Twelve attitude studies were randomly chosenfrom those studies published between 1975 and1990 in the Journal of Research in ScienceTeaching, Science Education, and School Scienceand Mathematics. One study did not provide anyquantitative data hence was removed from thesample resulting in eleven studies (N = 11). Theyare either correlational or experimental studies(Table 1).

Exemplar science curricula positively influencestudent-attitude towards science. In anexperimental study involving the ScienceCurriculum Improvement Study (SCIS), asignificant increase of positive student-attitudetowards science was recorded by Kyle,Bonnstetter and Gadsden (1988). The “Preferenceand Understanding” attitude testing instrumentwas used in this study. When compared with theattitudes of the students in the control group, theexperimental group said science is their favouritesubject, it is fun, exciting, interesting and curious.Also, the experimental group students requestedmore time for learning science.

In another research where the SCIS curriculum wasfollowed for six years, the student-attitude towardsscience and scientists showed a significantincrease (Lowery, Bowyer and Padilla, 1980).Students have enjoyed the experimenting activitiesof the SCIS curriculum more than anything else.This research has used the Projective Test ofAttitude for testing student-attitude.

Vargas-Gomez and Yager (1987) studied theattitudes of students using exemplary curriculaacross the United States of America. The samplefor this survey was randomly selected from atarget population of third, seventh and eleventhgraders across the U.S.A. The attitude testinginstrument used in this study was the “NationalAssessment of Educational Progress” attitudesurvey. Vargas-Gomez and Yager (1987) reportedthat students in the exemplar programmedeveloped a positive attitude towards science aswell as their science teachers. Both the studentsand their teachers exchanged questions andengaged in sharing ideas.

Hofman (1977) compared the effect of the NationalScience Foundation (NSF) curriculum withtraditional curricula on the attitude of eight-year-old students. His experimental group used theNSF science curriculum, and the control groupused textbook-based curriculum. The studentswho followed the NSF curriculum showed asignificant positive attitude towards sciencewhereas those who followed textbook-basedcurriculum did not show any significant change ofattitude.

High school students using the “InterdisciplinaryApproach to Chemistry” (IAC) curriculumreported that chemistry was fun and they liked it(Sherwood and Herron, 1976). IAC is a process

41

oriented laboratory-based chemistry curriculum.

The students who followed the IAC curriculum

reported on the “Scale to Measure Attitude

Towards any School Subject” that the learning

processes involved in IAC held their interest

longer. They also reported that they understood

chemistry better through the IAC curriculum than

the textbook curriculum.

Learning science through laboratory has

developed a positive attitude towards science

among students with reading difficulties (Milson,

1979). Milson reported in a study involving fifty-four ninth-graders who had reading difficultiesthat the concrete experience of the laboratoryinfluenced positive student-attitude towardsscience. In a similar study, Johnston, Ryan andSchroeder (1974) recorded a significant positiveattitude among 108 elementary students whoused laboratory-based science learning.Okebukola (1987) in a large scale study of student -attitude, found out the hands-on experienceassociated with laboratory-based learning as theinfluential factor for better student-attitude.

Table 1Table 1Table 1Table 1Table 1

ResearchResearchResearchResearchResearchHypothesisHypothesisHypothesisHypothesisHypothesis

ReferenceReferenceReferenceReferenceReference PurposePurposePurposePurposePurpose ResultsResultsResultsResultsResultsSubjectSubjectSubjectSubjectSubject MeasuresMeasuresMeasuresMeasuresMeasures ProcedureProcedureProcedureProcedureProcedure AnalysisAnalysisAnalysisAnalysisAnalysis

Kyle,Bonnstetterand Gadson,1988

Lowery,Bowyerand Padilla,1980

Gomez-Vargasand Yager,1987

Hofman,1977

Sherwood

and Herron,1976

SCIS vs.traditionalcurri. onattitude

Attitude after6 yrs usingSCIS

Attitudes oflearners inexemplaryprogrammesvs.traditionalprogrammes

NSFcurriculum vs.traditional onattitude

Interdisc.Approach toChemistry(IAC) curri. onattitude

SCIS-significantpositiveeffect

SCIS-sig.positive

Exemplary-sig. positive

NSF-positiveattitude

IAC developspositiveattitude

ElementarystudentsN = 456 (R)

Jr. highN = 110 (R)

Exempl.N = 150 (R)grades-3/7/11th.Trad. N=2500from NAEPstudies

Students,8 yrs of age.N=79 (R)

High schoolers

Preferenceandunderstanding

Projective Testof AttitudesLowery, 1966

Preferenceandunderstanding

Projective Testof Attitudes

Scale tomeasureattitudetowards anyschool subjectRemmers, 1960

One yearinstrn. Thenpost-test

Interview/12 minutes/student post-test only

Randompost-test

Pre-test,8mo. Instrn.,Post-test

Pre-test,Post-test

Chisquaretest

AVOVA

Z-test

Two wayAVOVA

F-test

SCISgroup-positiveattitude

Accepted thehypothesis

Exemplaryprogrammesdevelopedpositivestudentattitude


Significantinfluence

CLASSROOM VARIABLES AND STUDENT - ATTITUDE TOWARDS SCIENCEATTITUDE TOWARDS SCIENCEATTITUDE TOWARDS SCIENCEATTITUDE TOWARDS SCIENCEATTITUDE TOWARDS SCIENCE

42


Milson,1979

Okebukola,1987

Johnston,Ryan andSchroeder,1974

Mulpo &Fowler,1987

Talton &Simpson,1987

Okebukola& Adeneyi,1987

Laboratorycurri. and theattitude oflearners withreadingdifficulties

Influencingfactors towardlab.performance

Lab. centredvs. text-centredlearning andattitude

Effect ofdiscovery vs.traditionalmethods onthe attitudes offormal vs.concrete S’s.

ClassroomEnvironmentand Attitude

Lab. resourceutilisation andattitude

Concreteexper.developspositiveattitude

Hands-onand teacherattitudeinfluencestudentattitude

Lab/text-centred differtowardsattitude

Instructionalmethod hasno influenceon attitude

ClassroomEnv. affectsattitude

Relationship

Grade 9N = 54 (R)

Grade 11Students = 819,Teachers = 39

ElementarystudentsN = 108(R)

Concrete = 60(R), Formal =60 (R) Grade 11

Grade 10N = 1560 (R)Teachers = 23

Students =252Teachers = 21Lab. Assts = 18

Semantic Diff.FormsOsgood, 1967

Teach./Students’ Lab.Info. andAttitudeTowardsChemistry

Projective Testof Attitudes

AchievementTest onScienceAttitude

Simpson andTroost Instrn.1982

ScientificAttitudeQuestionnaire

Pre-test,Post-test

Random-3times

Post-testTwo- weekInstrn.

Pre-test, Tenweek instrn.,Post-test

Three timesper schoolyear

Randomtesting

AVOVAandmultiplelinearregression

MultipleRegressionAnalysis

AVOVA

Two wayAVOVA

PearsonCorr.and F-test

AVOVAandPearsonCorr.



Lab. hasmoreinfluence onattitude

Rejected thehypothesis


Frequency,quality,teacher’saffectattitude

Note: (R) means random sampling

chemistry on the attitudes of concrete and formal

operational learners. The results indicated no

significant difference in attitude among concrete

and formal operational learners. However, discovery

method of learning showed a higher correlation with

student-attitude than traditional method.

Okebukola and Adeneyi (1987) argue that positive

student-attitude depends on the extent to which

the laboratory resources are utilised effectively.

Talton and Simpson (1987) found that classroomenvironment influences students’ attitude towardsscience. The classroom environment includesfactors, such as emotional climate, physicalenvironment, friends and teachers. They foundthat the teachers’ positive attitude towardsscience as well as peer interaction as motivatorsof positive student-attitude towards science.

Mulpo and Fowler (1987) studied the effect ofdiscovery and traditional methods of learning

43

Their definition of laboratory resources includedthe teacher, the laboratory assistants as well aslaboratory materials. In addition to using the“Scientific Attitude Questionnaire” they alsoperformed direct classroom observations. Theoutcome of their study revealed a significantpositive correlation between frequency as well asquality use of the laboratory resources andstudent-attitude towards science. They also foundthat the resource person’s (the laboratoryassistant’s) attitude towards science had aninfluence on student-attitude.

Discussion and Conclusion

According to this review, several classroomvariables influence student-attitude towardsscience. They include exemplar science curricula,laboratory-based learning, utilisation of laboratoryresources, hands-on discovery methods,teacher’s attitude, classroom environment, etc.The empirical studies reviewed have beenperformed in classrooms at various geographicallocations representing students from a variety ofeducational, socio-economic and culturalbackgrounds. The studies have employed variousattitude testing instruments. Three of the eleven

studies reviewed have used the “Projective Test of

Attitudes” and two have used the “Preference and

Understanding Questionnaire”. The remaining six

studies have used six different attitude test

instruments.

Munby (1980) after reviewing 50 attitude testing

instruments in science education opined that

“there seems little to be said of the instrument to

enlist our confidence” (p. 237). Two major

problems of attitude testing instruments are: lack

of a theoretical framework to support the

instrument (Shrigley, 1983; Munby, 1983; and

Zeidler, 1984); and lack of sufficient validity and

reliability (Munby, 1980; Gardner, 1987; Bratt, 1984;

Schibeci, 1983; and Butts, 1983). Unless these

problems are resolved, it would continue to be

difficult to establish a conclusive relationship

between student-attitude and classroom

variables.

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Dr. Kathleen Hoover

Demphsy at Vanderbilt University for critiquing an

earlier draft of this paper.

References

BRATT, M.H. 1984. “Further Comments on the Validity Studies of Attitude Measures in Science Education”.Journal of Research in Science Teaching . 21 (9): 951-952.

BUTTS, D.P. 1983. “The Survey: A Research Strategy Rediscovered”. Journal of Research in Science Teaching.20 (3): 187-193.

GARDNER, P.L. 1987. “Measuring Ambivalence to Science”. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 24 (3):241-247.


44


GARDNER, P.L. 1985. “Attitudes to Science: A Review”. Studies in Science Education. 2: 1-41.

GAULD, C.F. 1982. “The Scientific Attitude and Science Education: A Critical Reappraisal”. Science Education.66 (1): 111-125.

HALADYNA, T. and J. SHAUGHESSY. 1982. “Attitudes Towards Science: A Quantitative Synthesis”. Science Education66 (4): 547-563.

HOFMAN, H.H. 1977. “An Assessment of Eight-year-old Children’s Attitude Towards Science. School Scienceand Mathematics, 77 (6), 662-670.

JOHNSTON, R.T., F.L. RYAN and H. SCHROEDEr. 1974. “Inquiry and the Development of Positive Attitudes”. ScienceEducation. 58 (1): 51-56.

KYLE, W.C., R.J. BONNSTETTER and T. GADSDEN. 1988. “An Implementation Study: An analysis of ElementaryStudents’ and Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Science in Process-approach vs. Traditional Science Classes”.Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 25 (2): 103-120.

KYLE , W.C., R.J. BONNSTETTER, S. Mc CLOSKEY and B.A. FULTS. 1985. “Science through Discovery: Students Loveit”. Science and Children. 23 (2): 39-41.

KYLE, W.C., J.E. PENICK and J.A. SHYMANSKY. 1980. “Assessing and Analyzing Strategies of Instructors inCollege Science Laboratories”. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 17 (2): 131-137.

LOWERY, L. 1966. “Development of an Attitude Measuring Instrument for Science Education”. School Scienceand Mathematics. 5 (3): 494-502.

LOWERY, L.F., J. BOWYER and M.J. PADILLA. 1980. “The Science Curriculum Improvement Study and StudentAttitudes”. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 17 (4): 327-3.

MILSON, J.L. 1979. “Evaluation of the Effect of Laboratory-Oriented Science Curriculum Materials on theAttitudes of Students with Reading Difficulties”. Science Education. 63 (1): 9-14.

MULPO, M.M., and FOWLER, H.S. 1987. “Effects of Traditional and Discovery Instructional Approaches onLearning Outcomes for Learners of Different Intellectual Development: A Study of Chemistry Students inZambia”. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 24 (3): 217-227.

MUNBY, H. 1980. “An Evaluation of Instruments which Measure Attitudes to Science”, McFadden, C. (ed.),World Trends in Science Education. Atlantic Institute of Education. Halifax, Nova Scotia.

MUNBY, H. 1983. “Thirty studies involving the ‘Scientific Attitude Inventory’: What Confidence Can We Havein this Instrument?” Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 20 (2): 141-162.

National Assessment of Educational Progress. 1978. “Science: Third Assessment” (1976-77), Denver,CO:NAEP.

45

OKEBUKOLA, P.A. and E.O. ADENEYI. 1987. “Resource Utilization Relative to Students’ Achievement in andAttitude towards Science”. Journal of Educational Research. 80 (4): 220-226.

OKEBUKOLA, P.A. 1987. “Students’ Performance in Practical Chemistry: A Study of Some Related Factors”.Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 24 (2): 119-126.

OSGOOD, C.E., G.J. SUCI and P.H. TANNENBAUM. 1967. The Measurement of Meaning. IL: University of IllinoisPress,

REMMERS, H.E. (1960). A Scale to Measure Attitude Towards any School Subject. : Purdue ResearchFoundation.IN.

SCHIBECI, R.A. 1983. “Selecting Appropriate Attitudinal Objectives for School Science”. Science Education. 67(5): 595-603.

SCHIBECI, R.A. 1984. “Attitudes to Science: An Update”. Studies in Science Education. 11: 26-59.

SHERWOOD, R.D. and J.D. HERRON. 1976. “Effect on Student Attitude: Individualized IAC Versus ConventionalHigh School Chemistry”. Science Education. 60 (4): 471-474.

SHRIGLEY, R.L. 1983. “The Attitude Concept and Science Teaching”. Science Education. 67 (4): 425-442.

SIMPSON, R.D., and K.M. TROOST. 1982. “Influences on Commitment to and Learning of Science amongAdolescent Students”. Science Education. 66 (5): 763-781.

TALTON, E.L. and R.D. SIMPSON. 1987. “Relationships of Attitude Toward Classroom Environment with AttitudeTowards and Achievement in Science among Tenth Grade Biology Students”. Journal of Research inScience Teaching. 24 (6): 507-525.

VARGAS-GOMEZ, R.G. and R.E. YAGER. 1987. “Attitude of Students in Exemplary Programs Towards TheirScience Teachers”. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 24 (1): 87-91.

ZEIDLER, D.L.1984. “Thirty Studies Involving the ‘Scientific Attitude Inventory’: What Confidence Can We Havein this Instrument?”. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 21 (3): 341-342.


During the last two decades there has been amajor upsurge in interest in science education.Children’s informal ideas particularly about thenatural and physical environment have drawnattention of many science educators. The ideaswhich they bring with them to the science classhave great implication in science teaching. Recentstudies by psychologists and science educatorshave indicated that children have views about avariety of topics in science from young age evenwhen they have not received any systematicinstruction in those subjects whatsoever. Theseideas and interpretations are a result of everydayexperience—of practical, physical activities and oftalking with other people. Their views are oftendifferent from the views of the scientists and arefrequently not well known by teachers. Tochildren, they are often sensible and useful views.

Young children, like scientists, are curious aboutthe world around them in how and why thingsbehave as they do. As children attempt to makesense of the world in which they live in terms ofexperiences, their current knowledge and use oflanguage, they develop ideas which may be called

'children’s science'. Although their ideas are lesssophisticated than those of practising scientists,some interesting parallels can be drawn. Children,like scientists, view the world through thespectacles of their own pre-conceptions andmany have difficulty in making their journey fromtheir own intuitions to the ideas presented inscience lessons. They do come to the scienceclass with already formulated ideas or alternativeframeworks and these may be at variance with thetheories the teacher wishes to develop. However,these intuitive ideas have a powerful influence onsubsequent learning.

When children in a class write about the sameexperiment they can give various diverseinterpretations of it. Individuals internalise thisexperience in a way which is at least partially theirown; they construct their own meanings. Thesepersonal ideas influence the manner in whichinformation is acquired. This personal manner ofapproaching phenomena is also found in the wayscientific knowledge is generated. Theobservations children make about naturalphenomena and interpretations of them are also

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ABOUT NATURAL

PHENOMENA AND ITS IMPLICATION FOR SCIENCE TEACHING

Dilip Kumar MukhopadhyayDilip Kumar MukhopadhyayDilip Kumar MukhopadhyayDilip Kumar MukhopadhyayDilip Kumar MukhopadhyayVinay Bhawan, Viswa BharatiSantiniketan, West Bengal

By appreciating, amongst other things, the perceptions that the learner brings to the class, the teacher canreduce the discrepancies between pupil’s intentions and his learning. Similarity of constructed meaning to thatintended by the teacher depends on the way a pupil copes with the language used by the teacher during instruction.

47

influenced by their ideas and expectations. Same

ideas may be shared by many pupils about similar

events or same child may have different

conceptions of a particular type of phenomenon.

Thus a child’s individual ideas may seem

incoherent. It is important in teaching and

curriculum development to consider and

understand children’s own ideas, their conceptual

framework about natural phenomena as it is to

give a clear presentation of the conventional

scientific theories.

By the time children come to school, their

expectations or beliefs about natural phenomena

are well developed. These intuitions may be poorly

articulated but they provide a base on which

formal learning can be built. However, in some

cases the accepted theory may be counter intuitive

with children’s own beliefs and expectations

differing in significant ways from those to be

taught. Such beliefs are referred to as ‘alternative

frameworks’ by Driver (1983). There is evidence

from a number of investigations that children

have common alternative frameworks in a range

of areas, including physical phenomena, such as

propagation of light, simple electric circuits, ideas

about force and motion and chemical change as

also biological ideas concerned with growth and

adaptation. To cite an example from plant

nutrition it is very often heard that pupils believe in

plants taking prepared food from the soil. As

regards respiration in plants, children have the

notion that plants respire only at night and during

day time they only photosynthesise.

It is often noticed that even after being taught,

children do not modify their ideas in spite of

attempts by a teacher to challenge them by

offering counter evidence. Children either ignore

counter evidence or interpret it in terms of theirprior ideas. What children are capable of learningdepends, at least in part, on what they have in theirheads as well as the learning content which ispresented to them. Learning does not occur bythe learner responding in a passive way to theenvironment but by actively interacting with it. Ittakes place through the interaction between alearner’s experience and the conceptual frameworkhe has to give meaning to such experiences.

Pupils as individuals inevitably construct their ownpurpose for a lesson, from their own intentionsregarding the activities they will undertake, drawtheir own conclusions and carry these through intheir subsequent thinking. The fundamentalpremise is that children tend to generateperceptions and meanings that are consistentwith their prior learning. These perceptions andmeanings are something additional both to thestimuli and the learner’s existing knowledge.When a teacher talks to his class, draws adiagram on the blackboard, discusses a chart orasks pupils to read a textbook, his intendedmeaning or that of the textbook author is notautomatically transferred to the mind of the pupil.Each child in the classroom constructs his or herown meaning from the variety of stimuli presentin his or her environment. To construct meaning,it requires effort on the part of the learner; linksmust be generated between stimuli and storedinformation. Teachers must contrive learningsituations in such a way that mental constructionsmade by pupils—what the lesson is about, what isto be done or what can be and what is to be learntfrom it correspond with their own intentions. Byappreciating, amongst other things, theperceptions that the learner brings to the class,the teacher can reduce the discrepancies between

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ABOUT NATURAL PHENOMENA AND ITS IMPLICATION FOR SCIENCE TEACHINGFOR SCIENCE TEACHINGFOR SCIENCE TEACHINGFOR SCIENCE TEACHINGFOR SCIENCE TEACHING

48


pupil’s intentions and his learning. Similarity ofconstructed meaning to that intended by theteacher depends on the way a pupil copes with thelanguage used by the teacher during instruction.

From an educational perspective it has been arguedthat it may be necessary to take account of the ideasand beliefs that young pupil bring to their formalstudy of science if these ideas are to be successfullymodified by instruction. The intuitive ideas thatstudents hold prior to instruction are both identifiableand stable and have enough commonality to make itworth planning instructional sequences to changethem. The implication of it is that the strategy to beused in any given institutional situation shoulddepend on whether or not children already have manysuch ideas.

If we adopt a view of learning as conceptualchange in its broadest sense then we need to haveinformation about the ideas that students maybring to the learning situation. When students arepresented with ideas in science lessons they mayfit them into their intuitive ideas and the resultmay be a mix of taught science and intuitivescience. At other times, a student maycompartmentalise his or her knowledge and notintegrate new knowledge with existingknowledge. When they meet formal sciencelessons in the school, students have to activelymodify and restructure their own ideas. This

requires a willingness and effort on the part of thelearner. Likewise, if the ideas held by students areto be taken into account, teaching cannot simplybe viewed as the telling or giving of knowledge to

the students. Teaching involves helping each

student to construct for himself or herself the

accepted ideas. The starting point of a teaching

sequence is then the intuitive ideas students bring

with them, the conceptual framework they have

with them. Having found out the ideas held by

students in a class, the role of the teacher then

becomes that of diagnostician and prescriber of

the appropriate learning activities. Teaching needs

to be related to what is familiar to the children not

just at the level of the world of events and

experiences but also in their world of ideas.

If a science lesson is related to the world outside

the classroom in a way which helps the pupil

expand his or her knowledge of that world and to

make sense of it in a new way, if it is related to

prior ideas that the child has already stored in

memory, he or she is able to fit the lesson into the

pattern of his/her existing ideas and experience.

So to make a lesson interesting it must have

relevance to children's everyday life. To be aware

of children's existing informal ideas about natural

phenomena is important if we are to help them

relate these ideas in their minds to the learning

experiences provided for constructing new ideas.

ReferencesCLAXTON, G. 1983. Teaching and Acquiring Scientific Knowledge. C.S.M.E., Chelsea, UK.

DRIVER, R. 1983. The Pupil as Scientist. Open University Press.

OSBORNE, R. and FREYBURG, P. 1985. Learning in Science. Heinemann Educational Books.

SUTTON, C. 1980. “The Learner’s Prior Knowledge: A Critical Review of Techniques for Probing itsOrganisation”. European Journal of Sci. Ed.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ACADEMIC SELF-CONCEPT IN

SCIENCE AND COGNITIVE PREFERENCE STYLES

J.S.J.S.J.S.J.S.J.S. PadhiPadhiPadhiPadhiPadhiRegional College of EducationNational Council of Educational Research and TrainingBhopal

The study aims at finding the relationship between Cognitive Preference Styles (CPS) and Academic Self-conceptin Science (ASCSc) of the secondary school students. The sample consisted of 200 Class IX students. The studyreveals that ‘Application’ style is positively and significantly related to ASCSc. Students differ in their CPS withhigh and low ASCSc; and gender differences are absent in CPS.

Introduction

Cognitive preference of Heath (1964) provided a newline of thought to many researchers like Kempaand Dube (1978) and Tamir (1974). Cognitivepreference testing helps in determining thelivelihood of students using the informationintellectually. The construct is regarded as thevariant of cognitive style. Congnitive styles arerelated to the vocational preferences, the choice ofspecialisation and relative preference within thefields. These predict the direction of achievementand hence provide a potentially powerful basis forcareer development and guidance.

In India, sporadic researches have been started onCognitive Preference Styles in various sciencesubjects. But in Israel, America and Britain, Heath,Atood, Tamir (1974, 75, 76), Kempa (1978), Rogal(1979), Brown (1970) and Hofstein et. al. (1973) havedone a lot of work in this area. In their researches,they have constructed and validated differentcognitive preference styles with achievement,intelligence and some background variables like

curriculum, teacher bias, teachers’ cognitive styleand sex. So far, no attempt has been made tostudy the relationship between Academic Self-concept in Science (ASCSc) and the CognitivePreference Styles (CPS) of the school students.Therefore, the investigator has attempted thefollowing study:

“The relationship between Academic Self-conceptin Science (ASCSc) and Cognitive Preference Styles.”

Hypotheses

The following hypotheses were tested:

(i) There is no significant relationship betweenASCSc and Cognitive Preference Styles ofstudents.

(ii) The students having low and high ASCSc donot differ in cognitive preference styles.

(iii) There is no significant difference in cognitivepreference styles between boys and girls.

50


Sample

The sample constituted 200 students (102 boysand 98 girls) studying in Class IX in four differentschools of Bhopal district.

Tools

The investigator used two instruments. Thedescriptions are as under :

(i) Academic Self-concept Scale in Science(ASCSSc): A Linkert type scale was developedby the investigator (1988) for his study. Thescale consists of 50 items (25 pairs bipolaritems) arranged in cyclic order according todimension in the scale. The reliabilitycoefficient as calculated by test-retest methodwas found to be 0.84. Internal consistencycoefficients were calculated by using Cronbachprocedure. The coefficients for the fivedimensions of the scale ranged between 0.71and 0.82. Intercorrelation coefficients betweenvarious dimensions were also calculated.

(ii) Cognitive Preference Style (CPS): TheCognitive Preference Style prepared byAtwood (1971) measures three modes ofpreferences such as Memory (M), Questioning(Q) and Application (A). Out of thirty items,twenty-seven are functional and others aredistractors. The items are almost equallydistributed between physical and biologicalsciences.

Results

(1) Relationship between ASCSc and CognitivePreference Style: Assuming normality indistribution of scores in Memory (M),Questioning(Q), Application (A) and ASCSc,

product-moment coefficient has beencalculated. The r values are shown inTable 1.

a) Table 1 reveals that the correlationcoefficient between ASCSc and M-scores(M) for the sample of boys, girls and thetotal are found to be negative. For the boysand total sample, they are significant at .01level whereas non-significant for the girls.

b) The correlation coefficient between ASCScand Q-score (Q), for the boys group is lowpositive (r=0.12). For the girls group it isnegative and significant at .05 level (r=–20)but for the total sample it is low negative ornegligible.

c) The correlation coefficient between ASCScand A-score (A) is found to be positive forthe boys, girls and total sample, andsignificant for the girls group and totalsample at 0.05 level and 0.01 level,respectively.

(2) Comparison of Cognitive Preference Styles ofHigh and Low ASCSc: The groups of studentshaving high and low ASCSc were formed bytaking into consideration the mean andstandard deviation of scores. The mean andstandard deviation of the scores of 200students were found to be 189.11 and 25.76,respectively. Students having ASCSc scores(M+ISD=189.11+25.76=214.87) 215 wereassigned to the group of students having highASC. Similarly, students having ASCSs scoresless than (M–ISD= 189.11-25.76=163.35) 163were assigned to the group of students havinglow ASCSc. In a sample comprising of 200students, 33 fell into high ASCSc and 30 into

51

low ASCSc group. Mean and SD of M-scores,Q-scores and A -scores are summarised inTable 2. The t values were also calculated totest the significance of difference in the meansof M-scores, Q-scores and A-scores of the twogroups of students.

TTTTTablablablablable 1e 1e 1e 1e 1

Correlation Coefficient between CognitiveCorrelation Coefficient between CognitiveCorrelation Coefficient between CognitiveCorrelation Coefficient between CognitiveCorrelation Coefficient between Cognitive

Preference Styles and Academic Self-Preference Styles and Academic Self-Preference Styles and Academic Self-Preference Styles and Academic Self-Preference Styles and Academic Self-

concept in Science (ASCSc)concept in Science (ASCSc)concept in Science (ASCSc)concept in Science (ASCSc)concept in Science (ASCSc)

P a i rP a i rP a i rP a i rP a i r B o y sB o y sB o y sB o y sB o y s G i r l sG i r l sG i r l sG i r l sG i r l s Tota lTota lTota lTota lTota l(N=102)(N=102)(N=102)(N=102)(N=102) (N=98)(N=98)(N=98)(N=98)(N=98) (N=200)(N=200)(N=200)(N=200)(N=200)

M and ASCSc – 0.30** – 0.11 – 0.29**

Q and ASCSc 0.12 – 0.20** – 0.04**

A and ASCSc 0.18 0.22* 0.20**

*P < 0.05 ** P < 0.01

High ASCSc group and low ASCSc group ofstudents were found to have some cognitivepreference styles desired on the basis of theirmean scores in Memory, Questioning and

Application modes. Both groups had firstpreference for ‘Application’, second preferencefor ‘Memory’, and third preference for‘Questioning’. So their cognitive preference stylewas found to be: Application MemoryQuestioning.

As is clear from Table 2, high and low ASCScgroups differed significantly in their M-scores andA-scores. Therefore, hypothesis of no differencein means of M-scores and A-scores of both thegroups is rejected in favour of low ASCSc groupfor ‘Memory’ and high ASCSc group for‘Application’. No significant difference was foundbetween the means of Q-scores of high and lowASCSc groups. Hence the null hypothesis isretained in this case.

(3) Gender Differences in CPS and ASCSc: Inorder to study the gender difference in CPS,mean and SD were computed for M-scores,Q-scores and A-scores for boys and girlsseparately. They are summarised along witht values in Tables 3.

Table 2Table 2Table 2Table 2Table 2Mean, SD and t Values of Scores on Three Dimensions of Mean, SD and t Values of Scores on Three Dimensions of Mean, SD and t Values of Scores on Three Dimensions of Mean, SD and t Values of Scores on Three Dimensions of Mean, SD and t Values of Scores on Three Dimensions of CPS ofCPS ofCPS ofCPS ofCPS of

High and Low ASCSc of StudentsHigh and Low ASCSc of StudentsHigh and Low ASCSc of StudentsHigh and Low ASCSc of StudentsHigh and Low ASCSc of Students

DimensionDimensionDimensionDimensionDimension High MHigh MHigh MHigh MHigh M Group SDGroup SDGroup SDGroup SDGroup SD Low MLow MLow MLow MLow M Group SDGroup SDGroup SDGroup SDGroup SD t-valuet-valuet-valuet-valuet-value Significance atSignificance atSignificance atSignificance atSignificance at.05 level.05 level.05 level.05 level.05 level

Memory (M) 7.94 1.89 9.16 2.76 2.04 * S

Questioning (Q) 7.48 2.17 8.03 2.98 0.84 NS

Application (A) 11.66 2.21 10.10 2.90 2.41* S

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ACADEMIC SELF-CONCEPT IN SCIENCE AND COGNITIVE PREFERENCE STYLESSCIENCE AND COGNITIVE PREFERENCE STYLESSCIENCE AND COGNITIVE PREFERENCE STYLESSCIENCE AND COGNITIVE PREFERENCE STYLESSCIENCE AND COGNITIVE PREFERENCE STYLES

52


Table 3

Mean, SD and t Values for Boys and Girls for M, Q and A Preference StylesMean, SD and t Values for Boys and Girls for M, Q and A Preference StylesMean, SD and t Values for Boys and Girls for M, Q and A Preference StylesMean, SD and t Values for Boys and Girls for M, Q and A Preference StylesMean, SD and t Values for Boys and Girls for M, Q and A Preference Styles

DimensionDimensionDimensionDimensionDimension B o y sB o y sB o y sB o y sB o y s G i r l sG i r l sG i r l sG i r l sG i r l s t-valuet-valuet-valuet-valuet-value Significance atSignificance atSignificance atSignificance atSignificance at

MMMMM S DS DS DS DS D MMMMM S DS DS DS DS D .05 level.05 level.05 level.05 level.05 level

Memory (M) 8.66 2.52 8.43 2.56 0.64 NS

Questioning (Q) 8.08 2.60 8.11 2.44 0.08 NS

Application (A) 10.30 2.71 10.59 2.80 0.74 NS

It is clear from Table 3 that all the three t valuesare non-significant at 0.5 level. Therefore, the nullhypothesis of no sex difference in means ofM-scores, Q-scores and A-scores is retained.

Summary

‘Memory’ is negatively and significantly correlatedwith ASCSc whereas ‘Questioning’ to a less extent.These two cognitive preferences are not to beencouraged for enhancement of ASCSc.‘Application’ is associated positively and significantlywith ASCSc. Thus their preference must beemphasised for development of ASCSc among thestudents in our teaching-learning process.

Cognitive preference style of both high and lowASCSc groups of students was found to be thesame, that is, A-M-Q. It reflects the highestpreference for ‘Application’ and the lowestpreference for ‘Questioning’ mode of cognitivereference styles. This result partially supports theviews of Saxena (1989). Significant difference wasfound in the means of ‘Memory’ and ‘Application’scores of both high and low ASCS groups. Nosignificant difference was found in the means of‘Questioning’ scores of both high and low ASCScgroups.

There is no gender difference in cognitivepreference style of the student as all the threet-values are non-significant.

ATWOOD, R.K. 1968. “A Cognitive Prefere nce Examination.” Journal of Research in Science Teaching.5: 34-35.

BROWN, S.A. 1970. “Cognitive Preferences in Science, Their Nature and Analysis.” Studies in ScienceEducation. 2.

HEATH, R.W. 1964. “Curriculum, Cognition and Educational Measurement.” Educational and PsychologicalMeasurement. 24: 239-253.

References

53

HOFSTEIN et. al. 1973. “A Comparative Study of Cognitive Preferences of Different Groups of ChemistryStudents.”Journal of Chemical Education. 55(11): 705-707.

KEMPA, R.F. and G.E. DUBE. 1978. “Cognitive Preference orientation in students of Chemistry”. British Journalof Educational Research. 43: 279-288.

ROGAL, A. 1979. Achievement and Cognitive Preference Styles of Chemistry Students who study DifferentCurricula in Israel.

SAXENA, A.K. 1989. “The Relationship between Attitude towards Physics and Cognitive Preference Styles inSecondary School Students.” School Science. Vol. XXVII (2): 5-9.

TAMIR, P. 1974. “ The attitude of High School Biology Teachers to BSCs Programme in Israel.” A paperpresented at the 47th annual meeting of the National Association of Research in Science Teaching, Chicago.

TAMIR, P. 1975. “ The Relationship among Cognitive Preference, Curriculum, Teachers’ Curricular Bias, Sex,and School Environment.” American Education Research Journal. 12(3): 235-243.

TAMIR, P. 1976. “ The relationship between Achievement in Biology and Cognitive Preference Styles in HighSchool Students.” British Journal of Educational Psychology. 46: 57-67.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ACADEMIC SELF-CONCEPT IN SCIENCE AND COGNITIVE PREFERENCE STYLESSCIENCE AND COGNITIVE PREFERENCE STYLESSCIENCE AND COGNITIVE PREFERENCE STYLESSCIENCE AND COGNITIVE PREFERENCE STYLESSCIENCE AND COGNITIVE PREFERENCE STYLES

Education for all by 2000, including disabled

children, is a global commitment. In this basic

education, science education also has an

important role to play. The teaching of science at

the foundation stage of schooling deserves

utmost care. But it is often given a low priority in

special education. The disabled children also have

a great need, like anyone else, to learn about the

world around them where scientific and

technological advancement affect everybody’s life.

Science can be used as a motivation to stimulate

learning in a number of different academic and

social areas and even to provide a basis for

vocational education leading to employment

opportunities in the modern technologically

advanced environment.

The Workshop Department of the National

Council of Educational Research and Training

undertook a project on “Adaptations in Science

Equipment and Instructional Material for Disabled

Children at Elementary Stage” in order to promote

science learning with the help of adapted science

equipment and instructional material for the

visually handicapped children. In this project a

study was undertaken with the following

objectives:

(i) To get background information about the wayscience is actually taught in the schools forblind children, in the “special setting” schools,and in the integrated schools (IntegratedEducation for the Disabled —IED).

(ii) To find out the areas of improvement anddeficiency in order to suggest further activitiesto accelerate science learning.

Method

The study was confined to the lower primaryschool level in the “special setting” and the “IEDschool setting”. The study was designed to seekinformation on the age group, the experience, theacademic and professional qualifications of theteachers concerned, the number of disabledchildren in each class from Class III to Class V, thedropouts with reasons, the time allotted to andspent on science teaching. It next sought toexplore the position of the availability and use ofequipment/teaching aids/resource room facilitiesand the nature of science teaching. Suggestionsfrom the various schools were also invited forimproving the science education for the visuallyimpaired children.

STATUS OF SCIENCE TEACHING IN INDIAN SCHOOLS FOR THE

VISUALLY IMPAIRED CHILDREN

H.O. GuptaH.O. GuptaH.O. GuptaH.O. GuptaH.O. Gupta

Anupama SinghAnupama SinghAnupama SinghAnupama SinghAnupama SinghWorkshop DepartmentNational Council of Educational Research and TrainingNew Delhi

55

Response

Judging from the number of returns, theresponse was limited. Questionnaires were sent to189 IED setting schools and 407 special settingschools. The responses were received from 29 IEDsetting schools and special setting schools. Thespecial setting schools in the States of Assam,Goa, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Jammuand Kashmir, Manipur and the Union Territory ofChandigarh and Pondicherry did not respond tothe questionnaire. The IED schools in the States ofBihar, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and theUnion Territory of Delhi also did not respond.

Major Findings

The study resulted in the following findings:

(i) In the special setting schools the teachers aremostly well-qualified, trained and experienced,except in Uttar Pradesh where the teachers areuntrained and with minimum qualifications. Inthe IED setting schools, most of the teachersare experienced and well-qualified, but they didnot have special training for teaching disabledchildren, except in the two States of Kerala andTamil Nadu where the teachers were trainedalso.

The teachers teaching in the IED settingschools are mostly male, young, and in theage-group 20-35 years. In the special settingschools, mostly the teachers are males and inthe age-group 40-49 years.

(ii) On an average, the teachers in the specialsetting schools are teaching science for 40-45minutes daily in each class for all the States. Ascompared to the other States, the time spenton science teaching in Kerala is 30 minutes.

In the case of the IED setting schools inHaryana, the time spent on science teaching isone hour daily whereas it is 35 minutes as faras Maharashtra and Rajasthan are concerned.

(iii) The situation regarding resource rooms, aidsand equipment needed for science teaching isvery bad.

The special setting schools of the followingStates do not have resource rooms and aids /equipment: Delhi, Haryana, Kerala, MadhyaPradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab,Rajasthan, Tripura and West Bengal. The IEDschools in the States of Mizoram, Meghalayaand Rajasthan also lack resource rooms, aidsand equipment.

(iv) The survey also indicates that there aredropouts from the special setting schools ofthe following States: Andhra Pradesh, Kerala,Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and WestBengal. The reasons are:

(a) Not properly trained in daily living skills.

(b) Over-protection of the parents.

(c) Home-sickness.

(d) Yield to childhood earning like begging, etc.

(e) Not properly motivated towards thebenefits of education.

(f) Unwillingness to learn.

(g) Poor progress in the class.

(h) Poor IQ.

(i) Long absence from the classes.

(j) Parents unwilling to keep their wards inresidential set-up.

For the IED setting schools of Haryana, Mizoram,Meghalaya and Orissa, the dropouts are due to the

STATUS OF SCIENCE TEACHING IN INDIAN SCHOOLS FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED CHILDRENVISUALLY IMPAIRED CHILDRENVISUALLY IMPAIRED CHILDRENVISUALLY IMPAIRED CHILDRENVISUALLY IMPAIRED CHILDREN

56


following reasons:

(i) Unable to cope with normal students.

(ii) Advanced age and home-sickness.

(iii) Lack of boarding facilities.

Teachers’ Recommendations for

Improving Science Teaching

(a) Special Setting Schools(a) Special Setting Schools(a) Special Setting Schools(a) Special Setting Schools(a) Special Setting Schools

(i) Orientation, training and refresher coursesfor science teachers based on modernchanges. Models, charts and simpleequipment are necessary for science teaching.

(ii) Only interest and insight of the concernedteachers can improve science teaching.

(iii) The schools have to be provided withminimum science equipment. Embossed,unbreakable, safe teaching aids and resourcerooms for science are a must.

(iv) Adaptation of equipment for disabled childrenat elementary level will improve science teaching.

(v) Field trips, practical experiment, directmethods, etc., will also help.

(vi) Good textbooks in braille are needed.

(b) IED Setting Schools(b) IED Setting Schools(b) IED Setting Schools(b) IED Setting Schools(b) IED Setting Schools

(i) Orientation and training courses for scienceteachers are required.

(ii) Learning by doing should be practised.

(iii) Separate science kits for each topic, models,

charts and simple equipment are necessary

for science teaching.

(iv) Simplified explanation of the subject matter

should be given in the textbooks.

(v) Power glasses should be provided by

schools for partially sighted children.

On the basis of the findings, it can be concluded

that the present status of science teaching in

Indian schools for the visually impaired children is

quite poor because of lack of specially trained

teachers and suitable equipment and instructional

material. It is quite clear that the most effective

way for the visually impaired children to learn is

that they do hands-on activities with real objects,

organisms and suitable teaching aids under the

guidance of properly trained teachers.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the UNICEF for

financial assistance. The author is grateful to

Prof. R.N. Mathur, Head, Workshop Department

of the NCERT and Prof. N.K. Jangira, Head,

Department of Teacher Education, Special

Education and Extension Services, NCERT, for

their valuable suggestions and encouragement

during the course of the project.

PUPIL’S ACADEMIC SELF-CONCEPT AND ACHIEVEMENT IN

SCIENCE : THE EFFECTS OF HOME ENVIRONMENT

J.S. PadhiJ.S. PadhiJ.S. PadhiJ.S. PadhiJ.S. PadhiReader in EducationRegional College of EducationNational Council of Educational Research and Training, Bhubaneswar

Home is the social institution which has the most

far reaching influence on the development of the

child. It does not only provide the hereditary

transmission of basic potentials for his

development, but also provides environmental

condition, personal relationships and cultural

pattern, favourable and unfavourable, positive and

negative, as reflected from its structure, social-

economic and cultural status and the pattern of

relationship and emotional state among its

members (Kundu, 1977). The home also sets a

pattern for the child’s attitude towards people,

things and institutions.

In view of the great significance of the family in

shaping of children’s personality development,

numerous researchers made attempts to study

the several factors of family ecology in relation to

children’s development and scholastic

achievement. Mishra, et al (1960) found that

children coming from high quality environment

achieve better in school than their counterparts

coming from low quality home environment.

Morrow and Williamson (1961) while analysing the

background of family factors responsible for

higher achievement of school children, concluded

that more congenial home environment, less

parental domination and sympathy are

responsible for the achievement of the children.Studies by Dave (1963), Dayer (1967), Kellaghan(1977) found positive relationship between familyenvironment and measures of academicachievements. Tabackman (1976) found giftedadolescents saw themselves as moreindependent, permissive and intellectual. Thesefamilies were structured and cohesive than thefamilies of non-achieving students.

Pandey (1985) reported punishment aspect of thehome environment is negatively related toachievement among deprived and non-deprivedgirls. Other aspects of Home Environment (HE)viz., control, protectiveness, permissiveness,nurturance and reward are not significantlyrelated to achievement in Hindi. She concludedthat if proper punishment is given, children mustperform in the school.

The nature and extent of relationship betweenhome and specific academic self-concept appearsto be a subject which though of great importancetheoretically, has been largely unexplored at thehands of research workers. It has beenpostulated that specific academic self-conceptdevelops in a stimulating environment. Sincechildren pass more of their precious and activetime during formative years in the home, its

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influence cannot be ruled out. It seems that theeffect of home has not been studied in depth withempirical approach. Hence, the present studyaims to study the effect of family socio-psychological environment on Academic Selfconcept Scale in Science (ASCSSc) of juniorsecondary school students.

Hypotheses

The following hypotheses were tested:

i) There is no significant relationship betweenHE dimensions and ASCSc of students.

ii) There is no significant relationship betweenHE dimensions and ASc of students.

iii) The students having low and high ASCSc donot differ in HE dimensions.

iv) The students having low and high (achievementin science) do not differ in HE dimensions.

Sample

The sample constituted of 291 students (187 boysand 104 girsl) studying in Class VIII in five differentschools of Shadol (a tribal dominated) district ofMadhya Pradesh.

ToolsToolsToolsToolsTools

The investigator used two instruments. Thedescriptions are as under:

(i) Home Environment Inventory (HEI)(i) Home Environment Inventory (HEI)(i) Home Environment Inventory (HEI)(i) Home Environment Inventory (HEI)(i) Home Environment Inventory (HEI)

The Home Environment Inventory prepared byMishra (1989) measures ten dimensions of home

environment, such as control, protectiveness,punishment, conformity, social-isolation, reward,deprivation of privilege, nurturance, rejection andpermissiveness. One hundred items are equallydistributed and arranged in cyclic order accordingto the dimensions of the scale.

(ii) Academic Self-concept in Science Scale(ii) Academic Self-concept in Science Scale(ii) Academic Self-concept in Science Scale(ii) Academic Self-concept in Science Scale(ii) Academic Self-concept in Science Scale

(ASCSc)(ASCSc)(ASCSc)(ASCSc)(ASCSc)

A Linkert type scale was developed by the author(1993) for his study. The scale consists of 50 items(25 pairs of bipolar items) arranged in cyclic orderaccording to the dimensions in the scale. Thereliability coefficients as calculated by test–retestmethods was found to be 0.84. Internalconsistency coefficients were calculated by usingCronbach procedure. The coefficients for the fivedimensions of the scale ranged between 6.71 and6.82. Intercorrelation coefficients betweenvarious dimensions were also calculated.

(iii) Achievement in Science(iii) Achievement in Science(iii) Achievement in Science(iii) Achievement in Science(iii) Achievement in Science

The marks obtained by the students in sciencesubject in the annual examination of the previousclass was taken from the school records.

Collection, Scoring and Tabulation of DataCollection, Scoring and Tabulation of DataCollection, Scoring and Tabulation of DataCollection, Scoring and Tabulation of DataCollection, Scoring and Tabulation of Data

The data were obtained by administration of thetools mentioned above to the subjects of thesample. The responses of the subjects recordedin the answer sheets were scored following theinstructions given in the manuals and the scoringkeys provided for the purpose. The scores weretabulated and necessary statistical treatmentswere given to analyse the data.

59

ResultsResultsResultsResultsResults

(1) Relationship between HE Dimensions with(1) Relationship between HE Dimensions with(1) Relationship between HE Dimensions with(1) Relationship between HE Dimensions with(1) Relationship between HE Dimensions with

ASCScASCScASCScASCScASCSc and AScand AScand AScand AScand ASc

Assuring normality in distribution of scores in tenHE dimensions, ASCSc and ASc, product-moment correlation coefficient has beencalculated. The ‘T’ values are given in Table 1.

Table 1

Correlation Coefficient betweenCorrelation Coefficient betweenCorrelation Coefficient betweenCorrelation Coefficient betweenCorrelation Coefficient between

HE Dimensions with ASCSc and AScHE Dimensions with ASCSc and AScHE Dimensions with ASCSc and AScHE Dimensions with ASCSc and AScHE Dimensions with ASCSc and ASc

HE DimensionHE DimensionHE DimensionHE DimensionHE Dimension A S C S cA S C S cA S C S cA S C S cA S C S c A S cA S cA S cA S cA S c

Control 0.17** 0.31**

Protectiveness 0.18** 0.82**

Punishment 0.06 0.09

Conformity 0.08 0.08

Social Isolation 0.21** 0.02

Reward – 0.02 0.01

Deprivation of Privileges – 0.1 – 0.04

Nurturance – 0.01 – 0.13*

Rejection – 0.01 – 0.26**

Permissiveness – 0.11 – 0.25**

*P< 0.05 **P< 0.01

(a) Table 1 reveals that correlation coefficientbetween ASCSc and HE dimensions viz.control, protectiveness and social-isolation arepositive and significant at 0.01 level. Otherseven correlations are low and some are

negative or negligible. Therefore, hypothesis ofno-significant relationship between thesedimensions is rejected in former three casesand accepted in later seven cases.

(b) ASc is positively and significantly correlatedwith control and protectiveness at 0.01 level.Again, ASc is also significantly correlated withnurturance, rejection and permissiveness atleast at 0.01 level but negatively. Other fivecorrelations are low and non-significant.Thus, the hypothesis of no-significantrelationship between these dimensions isrejected in former five cases but accepted inlater five cases.

(2) Comparison of HE Dimensions of High(2) Comparison of HE Dimensions of High(2) Comparison of HE Dimensions of High(2) Comparison of HE Dimensions of High(2) Comparison of HE Dimensions of High

and Low ASCScand Low ASCScand Low ASCScand Low ASCScand Low ASCSc

The groups of students having high and lowASCSc were formed by taking into considerationthe mean and standard deviation of scores. Themean and standard deviation of the scores of 291students were found to be 113.69 and 10.64respectively. Students having ASCSc scores (M +SD = 113.69 + 10.64 = 124.33) 124 were assigned tothe group of students having ‘high ASCSc’.Similarly, students having ASCSc scores less than(M – SD = 113.69 – 10.64 = 103.05) 103 wereassigned to the group of students having lowASCSc. In a sample comprising 291 students, 55fell into high ASCSc and 58 into low ASCSc group.Mean and SD of HE dimensions are summarisedin Table 2. The t-values were also calculated totest the significant of difference in the HEdimensions of the two groups of students.

PUPIL’S ACADEMIC SELF-CONCEPT AND ACHIEVEMENT IN SCIENCE: THE EFFECTS OF HOME ENVIRONMENTTHE EFFECTS OF HOME ENVIRONMENTTHE EFFECTS OF HOME ENVIRONMENTTHE EFFECTS OF HOME ENVIRONMENTTHE EFFECTS OF HOME ENVIRONMENT

60


Table 2

Mean, SD and t-values of Scores onMean, SD and t-values of Scores onMean, SD and t-values of Scores onMean, SD and t-values of Scores onMean, SD and t-values of Scores on

Ten Dimensions of HEI of High andTen Dimensions of HEI of High andTen Dimensions of HEI of High andTen Dimensions of HEI of High andTen Dimensions of HEI of High and

Low ASCSc of StudentsLow ASCSc of StudentsLow ASCSc of StudentsLow ASCSc of StudentsLow ASCSc of Students

H EH EH EH EH E H i g hH i g hH i g hH i g hH i g h L o wL o wL o wL o wL o w t -t -t -t -t -DimensionDimensionDimensionDimensionDimension G r o u pG r o u pG r o u pG r o u pG r o u p G r o u pG r o u pG r o u pG r o u pG r o u p valuesvaluesvaluesvaluesvalues

M e a nM e a nM e a nM e a nM e a n S DS DS DS DS D M e a nM e a nM e a nM e a nM e a n S DS DS DS DS D

Control 23.77 2.87 23.45 3.30 0.55

Protectiveness 24.87 3.16 24.70 3.52 0.27

Punishment 25.16 3.45 25.02 3.33 0.22

Conformity 25.68 2.63 25.85 2.73 0.34

Social Isolation 20.98 3.31 21.27 3.71 0.45

Reward 23.80 3.36 24.05 3.17 0.41

Deprivation ofPrivileges 19.36 3.41 20.49 4.35 1.56

Nurturance 20.46 3.57 21.19 3.69 1.08

Rejection 18.70 2.98 18.90 4.20 0.30

Permissiveness 18.16 3.52 19.84 4.04 2.42*

*P< 0.05

As it is clear from Table 2, high and low ASCScgroups differed significantly in ‘Permissiveness’of the home. Therefore, hypothesis of nodifference in means of ASCSc scores of both thegroups is rejected in favour of low ASCSc group.No significant difference was found in betweenthe other nine dimensions of high and low ASCScgroups. Hence, the null hypothesis is retained inthese cases.

(3) Comparison of HE Dimensions of High(3) Comparison of HE Dimensions of High(3) Comparison of HE Dimensions of High(3) Comparison of HE Dimensions of High(3) Comparison of HE Dimensions of High

and Low AScand Low AScand Low AScand Low AScand Low ASc

High and low groups on the basis of ASc scoreswere formed as per the above procedure. TheMean and SD of 291 students were found to be

45.54 and 10.37, respectively. Students having

(45.54 + 10.37 = 55.91) 56 were assigned to the

high ASc group and (45.54 – 10.37 were 35.17) 35

were assigned as the Low ASc group. In the

sample, 47 fell into high ASc and 95 into low ASc

group. Mean SD of HE dimensions are

summarised in Table 3. The t-values are also

calculated to test the significance of difference in

the HE dimensions of the two groups of the

students.

Table 3

Mean, SD and t-values of Scores onMean, SD and t-values of Scores onMean, SD and t-values of Scores onMean, SD and t-values of Scores onMean, SD and t-values of Scores on

Ten Dimensions of HEI of High andTen Dimensions of HEI of High andTen Dimensions of HEI of High andTen Dimensions of HEI of High andTen Dimensions of HEI of High and

Low ASCSc of StudentsLow ASCSc of StudentsLow ASCSc of StudentsLow ASCSc of StudentsLow ASCSc of Students

H EH EH EH EH E H i g hH i g hH i g hH i g hH i g h L o wL o wL o wL o wL o w t -t -t -t -t -DimensionDimensionDimensionDimensionDimension G r o u pG r o u pG r o u pG r o u pG r o u p G r o u pG r o u pG r o u pG r o u pG r o u p valuesvaluesvaluesvaluesvalues

M e a nM e a nM e a nM e a nM e a n S DS DS DS DS D M e a nM e a nM e a nM e a nM e a n S DS DS DS DS D

Control 24.89 2.78 22.83 3.88 3.88**

Protectiveness 25.02 3.12 24.37 3.46 1.12

Punishment 26.19 2.65 24.97 3.38 2.35*

Conformity 25.87 2.29 25.69 3.11 0.39

Social Isolation 20.10 4.05 20.77 4.02 0.93

Reward 23.94 3.72 24.49 3.05 0.89

Deprivation ofPrivileges 19.38 3.82 19.95 3.77 0.84

Nurturance 20.00 4.41 21.77 3.35 2.42*

Rejection 16.34 3.04 18.98 3.07 4.89*

Permissiveness 17.40 3.13 19.99 3.65 4.39*

* P< 0.05 ** P< 0.01

It is obvious from Table 3 that high and low AScgroups differed significantly in their scores ofcontrol, punishment, nurturance, rejection andpermissiveness. Therefore, hypothesis of no

61

difference in means of these HE dimensions isrejected in these cases. The high groupoutscored the low group in control andpunishment aspects whereas the low groupoutscored high group in nurturance, rejectionand permissiveness dimensions. No significantdifference was found between the means ofother five HE dimensions of high and low AScgroups. Hence the null hypothesis is retained inthese cases.

ConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusion

It can be concluded that ‘control’ and‘protectiveness’ are positively and significantly

correlated with both ASCSc and ASc whereas‘nurturance’, ‘rejection’ and ‘permissiveness’ arenegatively and significantly correlated with ASc.‘Social-isolation’ is also correlated with ASCScsignificantly.

‘Less permissiveness’ at home is the characteristicof high ASCSc and ASc pupils. More control,punishment, less nurturance, rejection andpermissiveness is the nature of high ASc pupils.

Thus, the homes of high ASCSc are controlled,protective, socially isolated and less permissiveand the high ASc are controlled, protective,punishing, less nurtured, less rejected and lesspermissive.

DAVE, B. 1963. Identification and measurement of environment process variables related to educationalenvironment and effects. NY: Wolberg.

DAYER, P.B. 1967. Home environment and achievement in Trinidad: Unpublished dissertation. University ofAlberta.

KELLAGAHAN, T. 1977. Relationship between home environment and scholastic behaviour in a disadvantagedpopulation: Journal of Educational Psychology. 69: 754-760.

KUNDU, C.L. 1977. Personality Development: A critique of Indian Studies. Vishal Publication, Rohtak.

MISHRA, K.N. 1989. Home Environment Inventory; Ankur Psychological Agency, Lucknow.

MORROW, M.R. and R.R. WILLIAMSON. 1961. Family relationship of bright and achieving and under achievingHigh school Boys. Child Development. 32: 501-552.

PADHI, J.S. 1993. Measurement of Academic Self-concept: Development of a scale: Indian Journal ofPsychometry and Education. July. Vol. 24 (2): 73-78.

PANDEY, K. 1985. Relationship between Home environment and achievement among deprived and non-deprived pre-adolescents. Journal of the Institute of Educational Research. 4 (2): 10-13.

TABACKMAN, M. 1976 A study of family psycho-social environment and its relationship to academic achievementin gifted adolescents. Doctoral dissertation. Department of Education, University of Illinois.

References

PUPIL’S ACADEMIC SELF-CONCEPT AND ACHIEVEMENT IN SCIENCE: THE EFFECTS OF HOME ENVIRONMENTTHE EFFECTS OF HOME ENVIRONMENTTHE EFFECTS OF HOME ENVIRONMENTTHE EFFECTS OF HOME ENVIRONMENTTHE EFFECTS OF HOME ENVIRONMENT

To design the curriculum area of science, carefulattention needs to be given to the structure of unitplanning. The objectives for students to attain maybe stated in measurable terms. To achieve balancein the curriculum, cognite, affective andpsychomotor ends need to be stated withprecision. Each domain of objectives is salient forstudent attainment. After instruction, it is possibleto measure if a learner has or has not achieved themeasurably stated objective.

Toward the other end of the continuum, generalobjectives may be stated and implemented inongoing units of study. To stress balance amonggeneral objectives, understandings, skills andattitudinal goals should be emphasised inteaching-learning situations. With generalobjectives, it is not possible to measure if astudent has or has not achieved the chosen end.However, flexibility in curriculum developmentmay be emphasised, such as student-teacherplanning.

The measurably-stated objectives versus generalobjectives debate represents differences inassumptions and beliefs in education. Themeasurable objectives movement stresses:

1. What has been learned is observable andmeasurable.

2. Certainty needs to be in evidence in terms ofwhat a teacher is to teach and students are tolearn. Uncertainty of which cognitive, affective,and psychomotor objectives (specificity ofends) to stress in lessons and units representsteachers who waver and are uncertain ofthemselves.

3. The importance of learning routes or activitieswhich must harmonise directly with thechosen ends.

4. Validity in testing. Items on a test must matchthe objectives emphasised in teaching-learningsituations.

General objectives advocates believe:

1. Important learnings, be it subject matter skillsor attitudes cannot be measured with precision.

2. An adequate number of goals should come fromteacher-student planning of the curriculum.

3. Individual students may well pursue goalsdifferent from other learners. Common goalsfor all to attain then is not possible.

4. An open-ended curriculum needs to be inevidence which meets student's interests,purposes and needs. General objectives canmake provisions for individual differencesamong learners.

DESIGNING SCIENCE UNITS OF STUDY

Marlow EdigerRt 2. Box 38, Kirksville

M063501, U.S.A.

The debate between measurably stated andgeneral objectives might be harmonised inutilising the former where feasible and possibleand the latter whereby students with teacherassistance develop goals, learning opportunitiesand appraisal procedures.

The writer recommends the following for scienceteachers in the measurably stated versus generalobjectives debate:

1. Teachers individually need to be highlyknowledgeable pertaining to assumptionsinvolved in each of the two kinds of objectives.

2. Both measurable and general objectives needto be implemented in the science curriculum.

3. Science teachers need to appraise how specificand general objectives affect student progressin on-going lessons and units.

4. Each teacher needs to analyse the quality ofteaching being emphasised when contrastingthe utilisation of measurably stated versusgeneral objectives. Under which conditionsdoes the teacher of science believe thatlearners can achieve in a more optimalmanner?

5. Curricular constraints need to be taken intodeveloping the science curriculum. Does astate mandate Criterion Referenced Tests(CRTs) with tile utilisation of measurably-stated ends to ascertain learner progress inscience?

6. The ultimate statement in the teaching ofscience pertains to helping each studentachieve as much as possible in each lessonand unit of study.

Philosophies of Science Education

Diverse philosophical schools of thought inscience are in evidence to develop and implementlessons and units in science.

Experimentalism emphasises the use of problemsolving experiences for students. Flexible steps inproblem solving involve:

1. Identifying the problem.

2. Gathering data to solve the identified problem.

3. Developing a hypothesis directly based on theobtained data and in answer to the problem.

4. Testing the hypothesis.

5. Revising the hypothesis, if evidence warrants.

Experimentalism emphasises that real lifeproblems be identified by students. The problemsthen come from society. In society, earthquakes,hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, amongmany other natural phenomena, occur. Out ofthese scenes and situations, problems arise andare identified, such as “What makes for thehappening of earthquakes?” Information thenneeds to be gathered to answer the problem orquestion. An answer, tentative in nature, is thendeveloped. The answer, a hypothesis, is thenchecked against further content, secured from avariety of reference sources. Modification of theoriginal answer or hypothesis may then beneeded.

Idealism, as a philosophy of education,emphasises in idea-centered curriculum. Sciencethen becomes a part of the general educationprogramme. A subject-centred, not an activity-centred philosophy, is then in evidence. Diverse

DESIGNING SCIENCE UNITS OF STUDYUNITS OF STUDYUNITS OF STUDYUNITS OF STUDYUNITS OF STUDY

63

64


academic disciplines, such as zoology, botany,physics, astronomy, biology, chemistry andgeology provide subject matter for on-going unitsof study. Textbooks, workbooks, worksheets anda few selected audio-visual aids provide content tostudents. Universal ideas or generalisations inscience units need to be achieved by students. Theteacher needs to be a true academician andscholar to stimulate student learning.

Realism, as a third philosophy of education,advocates the utilisation of precise, measurableobjectives. Realists believe that the real world ofscience can be known in whole or part as it trulyis. What students achieve in each science unit canbe measured. The real world of naturalphenomena can then be stated in precise,measurable objectives. A variety of concretelearning activities, in particular, should beprovided for students to attain the specific ends.Semi-concrete as well as abstract activities alsoshould be in the offing. After instruction, it isobservable and measurable if an objective hasbeen achieved by students.

Existentialism, as a fourth philosophy ofeducation, emphasises the learner, himself orherself, being heavily involved in deciding what(the objectives) to learn, as well as the means(learning activities) in on-going science units ofstudy. Thus, a learning centres philosophy may beemphasised. More centres and tasks for learnersto pursue are in evidence than what can becompleted. Each student may then sequentiallychoose which tasks to complete, as well as whichto omit. Students individually are involved inmaking these decisions. The teacher develops thecentres for learner interaction. Better yet, student-teacher planning may be used to develop thecentres and their inherent tasks.

When looking at the diverse philosophies ofeducation and their implementation for thescience curriculum, the writer recommends thefollowing:

1. Each teacher needs to become thoroughly

familiar with each philosophical school of

thought.

2. Each philosophy needs to be implemented on

a trial basis in on-going lessons and units.

3. The effect of the diverse philosophies needs to

be observed in terms of student progress in

science.

4. The science teacher needs to appraise the self

as to how each philosophical strand affects

one’s own teaching style.

5. Teachers individually need to develop their very

own philosophy of teaching science. The

adopted philosophy must harmonise with

students learning styles and one’s own beliefs

about learners and the actual act of teaching.

Processes versus Products

Science educators tend to disagree as to which is

more significant in the curriculum—the processes

or the products of learning. The American

Association for the Advancement of Science

(AAAS) in Science: A Process Approach (SAPA)

emphasises in the programme of units of

instruction that students achieve the following

processes:

1. Observing

2. Recognising and using number relations

3. Measuring

65

4. Recognising and using space-time relations

5. Classifying

6. Communicating

7. Inferring

8. Predicting

9. Defining operationally

10. Formulating hypothesis

11. Interpreting data

12. Controlling variables

13. Experimenting

The above-named processes can be utilised in anyacademic discipline in science. With qualityprocesses emphasised in teaching-learningsituations, students in science lessons and unitsshould attain vital, relevant subject matter.However, emphasis in the AAAS SAPAprogramme, processes are more important thanproducts, that is subject matter learningsacquired by learners.

Other science educators advocate products (vitalfacts, concepts and generalisations) as being themajor outcomes of teaching-learning situations.Thus, from the academic disciplines involvingzoology, botany, biology, astronomy, chemistry,physics and geology, students should acquirestructural ideas as well as significant conceptsand facts.

The writer recommends that:

1. Processes and products receive equivalentemphasis. With quality processes stressed inscience, worthwhile facts, concepts andgeneralisations should follow as end results.

2. Each teacher should be highly knowledgeableabout diverse process and product goals inteaching science.

3. Objectives in the science curriculum reflect anadequate number of processes as well asproducts.

4. Learning opportunities to guide students toattain process ends as well as product goalsshould be inherent in each on-going lessonand unit.

5. Evaluation procedures need to emphasiseprocesses and products in the sciencecurriculum. A variety of appraisal proceduresshould be utilised, such as teacherobservation, student self-evaluation, teacherwritten tests as well as standardised tests.

A Logical versus a Psychological

Curriculum

Who should sequence or order objectives and

learning experiences for students to pursue? The

science teacher, a team of teachers and/or State-

mandated Criterion Referenced Tests (CRT) may

determine sequence in attaining objectives in

science. These educators then base the order of

learning for students on logic or rational thought.

Toward the other end of the continuum is a

psychological science curriculum. A learning

centred psychology may well be emphasised here.

An adequate number of centres needs to be in

evidence. At each centre, five or six different tasks

should be available. Enough centres and tasks

should prevail so that students may truly select

what to pursue and complete, as well as what to

omit. Interest, purpose and meaning need to be in

evidence for each learning activity pursued. The

teacher develops the centres and tasks. Teacher-


66


student planning can also be in evidence at thediverse centres with its inherent tasks. In apsychological science curriculum, each studentselects sequential tasks within a flexibleframework.

In viewing the logical versus psychological sciencecurriculum, the writer recommends that:

1. Each student needs to achieve optimallyregardless of which psychology is utilised.

2. The best order or sequence in learning needsto be in evidence for students individually.

3. New ways of developing sequence need to besought and tested in actual teaching-learningsituations.

4. Experimental studies need to be conducted todetermine under which sequential plan—alogical, a psychological or a combination of thetwo approaches—is best for guiding studentson an individual basis to achieve as much aspossible.

5. Teachers should focus on the concept ofsequence when implementing on-goinglessons and units.

Scope in the Science Curriculum

What should be the breadth of knowledge,abilities or attitudes emphasised in scienceinstruction? Each of these categories of objectivesshould receive adequate attention. Numerousways are in evidence to determine scope.

First of all, problem solving can be emphasised ina quality science curriculum. The problemsshould be real and life-like. Students need toperceive purpose and meaning within the

problems identified. Thus, from current events

items, the following come up repeatedly:

1. What causes rain, dew, frost, snow, and hail to

occur?

2. What causes mountains to form?

A variety of reference sources need utilisation to

secure reliable information in answer to the

identified problems. Testing and revising of

answers is a definite possibility. A quality science

curriculum in stressing scope might then

emphasise problem solving.

A second approach in achieving scope would be

to utilise basal textbooks, single or multiple

series, together with workbooks and worksheets.

The table of contents of the basal series will

indicate which units are to be emphasised. The

writer would thoroughly recommend if textbook

contents determine scope in the science

curriculum that an adequate number of audio-

visual materials be utilised to clarify ideas

presented from the reading materials.

A third approach in determining scope in the

science curriculum is to emphasise teacher-

student planning. Within each science unit, the

teacher can stimulate students to plan definite

goals, learning opportunities and appraisal

procedures. Students are encouraged, not

hindered, to participate in developing the science

curriculum.

A fourth method of scope emphasises project

methods of instruction. The late William Heard

Kilpatrick (1871-1964), Professor at Columbia

University in New York City, advocated flexible

steps to follow in the project method. In the

project method, Dr. Kilpatrick recommended

67

open-ended flexible procedures. First of all, thestudent needs to perceive purpose or reasons forthe project. Next, the learner with the teacher planthe project, as established in the purpose. Afterthe planning has been completed, the studentguided by the teacher carries out the plan. Oncethe project has been completed, its quality needsto be evaluated in terms of desirable standards.The total number of projects, successfullycompleted by students, would pertain to thescope of the science curriculum.

There are numerous approaches available indetermining scope in the curriculum. When usingproblem-solving procedures, the textbookmethod, student-teacher planning, and/or theproject method, provision needs to be made forfast, average and slow learners. The writerrecommends the following in achieving adesirable scope in the curriculum:

1. Use diverse, not a single procedure. Studentslike variety of methodology in teaching andlearning.

2. Determine under which conditions studentsachieve more optimally. A carefully developedresearch design could emphasise qualitypractical research in the curriculum.

3. Study other methods of determining scope inscience. Scope should not remain static, but

be subject to modification and change toprovide more adequately for each individualstudent.

4. Use the carefully selected basal textbook asthe core in determining scope. Have problem-solving, student-teacher planning and theproject method elaborate on textbook subjectmatter.

In Summary

The writer has identified numerous issues inteaching science. These issues include

1. Specific versus general objectives in teaching.

2. Diverse schools of thought in the philosophyof education.

3. Process versus product ends of instruction.

4. A logical versus a psychological sequence.

5. Numerous different means in determiningscope in the science curriculum.

Methods of teaching science need to incorporateways to resolve the above identified issues. Theultimate goal of teaching science is to assist eachstudent to attain as much as possible in thescience curriculum.


68


ABRUSCATO, JOSEPH. 1982. Teaching Children Science. Englewood Cliffs, Prentice Hall, Inc., New Jersey.

BEANE, JAMES A., et. al. 1986. Curriculum Planning and Development. Allyn and Bacon, Inc., Boston.

CARIN, ARTHUR, and B. SUND. ROBERT. 1985.Teaching Science Through Discovery. Charles E. Merrill PublishingCompany, Columbus, Ohio.

GEGA, PETER C.1986. Science in Elementary Education. Fifth edition. Macmillan Publishing Company,New York.

HENSON, KENNETH T. and DELMAR JANKE. 1984. Elementary Science Methods. McGraw-Hill Book Company,New York.

JACOBSON, WILLARD J. and ABBY BARRY BERGMAN. 1980. Science for Children: A Book for Teachers. EnglewoodCliffs, Prentice Hall, Inc., New Jersey.

MOORE, W. EDGAR, et. al. 1985.Creative and Critical Thinking. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.

TROJCAK, DORIS A. 1979. Science with Children. McGraw Hill Book Company, New York.

VICTOR, EDWARD. 1985. Science for the Elementary School. Fifth edition. MacMillan Publishing Company,New York.

References

Introduction

It is matter of great concern that in this age ofscience and technology, aspects of scienceteaching are not getting the proper attention inour country. The emphasis is still on rote learningof science. On the other hand, in many advancedcountries the cognitive development practiceshave become an important area of linking ofscience instruction with students’ cognitivedevelopment. Goods (1980) observes thefollowing:

Where ‘thinking’ is a desired outcome, theteacher must have an understanding of thegeneral cognitive characteristics and rangeof abilities of the children. Many textbooksand materials that have been developed forscience instruction assume a level of thinkingthat is not available to many or, in some cases,to all children in the classroom.

Thus, the blame for science curricula not cateringfor the cognitive development lies squarely on theoutdated textbooks and classroom instructionaltechniques, like lecture and discussion methods.These practices do not provide opportunities for

scientific investigation and experimentation.Therefore, it becomes imperative to switch overfrom the lecture method to the problem-solvingand project methods of instruction.

Some people and investigatory experiments canbe easily set for students to collect observationsand interpret those on their own. For this purposea deliberate attempt should be made to familiarisestudents with the variables and controls in theexperimental situations.

Role of Science Project Work

Furthermore, the idea of project work in India hasbeen so devalued that all sorts of normal pieces ofschool work are being taken as project work.Even preparing charts, writing a story andpreparing scrap-books, etc. are being designatedas project work. In respect of the meaning ofproject, Ponts E.M. et. al (1971) observe thefollowing:

The educational philosophy underlying theproject method is that children learn best bytrying out their ideas in the practicalsolutions of real problems which have freely

SCIENCE INSTRUCTION FOR MAKING CHILDREN THINK AND DO

Lalit KishorLalit KishorLalit KishorLalit KishorLalit KishoreeeeeSenior Coordinator

Bodh Shiksha SamitiJaipur 302015

70


chosen to tackle. In science teaching its greatvalue may be the opportunity it provides fordirect creative activity. In carrying out theprojects, the students would learn a gooddeal of science, by studying many sources ofinformation, by devising experiments,making trails of apparatus and by a criticalexamination of results leading to redesigningof the experiment.

Thus, it becomes evident that the project workmust form a part of science curriculum andchildren should be encouraged to do simpleprojects related to the problems around them.This kind of activity results in developing theirhigher levels of cognition like comprehension,application and synthesis.

Focus on the Child

Child-centredness

Another method of cognitive developmentthrough science teaching is by making classroominstruction child-focussed. Teachers can identifythe individual needs of students and developscience curricula catering to the needs of eachchild. The individualised curricula should be basedon certain tested assumptions and principles. Inthis connection, Good (1980) further suggests thefollowing assumptions on which science teachingshould be based.

1. It is possible to logically derive learningconditions from goals and characteristics oflearners.

2. Learning conditions must reflect what is notknown as well as what is known about students.

3. Teacher behaviours and learning materials aredominant factors in determining learningconditions since these two factorscommunicate to the students’ conceptual andoperational meanings of learning.

4. Learning how to learn can be facilitated byschool experiences.

5. Self-actualised learning should be the goal ofeducation.

6. Learning conditions can be tested by studyinginteractive processes and outcomes ofeducational activities.

An Example

A good model of think-and-do science has beendeveloped under the Andhra Pradesh PrimaryEducation Project (APPEP) which has now beenreplaced by District Primary EducationProgramme (DPEP). Six instructional (APPEP,1993) postulates derived on the basis of practicalimplementation of the project are summarised inthe following table.

Table 1

The Survey of the Six Instructional Postulates for Think-and-do Science (Adapted Version)The Survey of the Six Instructional Postulates for Think-and-do Science (Adapted Version)The Survey of the Six Instructional Postulates for Think-and-do Science (Adapted Version)The Survey of the Six Instructional Postulates for Think-and-do Science (Adapted Version)The Survey of the Six Instructional Postulates for Think-and-do Science (Adapted Version)

S . N o .S . N o .S . N o .S . N o .S . N o . PostulatePostulatePostulatePostulatePostulate ComponentsComponentsComponentsComponentsComponents Deta i lsDeta i lsDeta i lsDeta i lsDeta i ls

1. Providing 1.1 Activity • Relevance of the activity• Appropriate concept pitching• Process learning emphasis

71

1.2 Planning • Sub-activities are steps• Sequencing• Time framing

1.3 Providing • List of materialsmaterials • Quantity of materials

• Availability of materials• Norms and rules for the use of materials

2. Promoting 2.1 Observing • Use of two or more senseslearning by • Observing objects: properties, features, attributesdoing • Observing actions, events, happenings, phenomena

2.2 Raising questions • Promoting children’s questions• Raising questions on children’s discussion• Asking questions from students

2.3 Generating ideas • Thinking divergently• Providing alternatives and extension activities• Conjecturing, hypothesising forecasting, predicting

2.4 Investigating • Putting things together for experimenting• Verifying hypothesis• Collecting information

2.5 Recording • Words and numerals• In diagrams

2.6 Interpreting • Looking at data for relations• Finding patterns• Making sense

2.7 Communicating • Through talking, report writing, dramatising• Through models, displays, charts, graphs, pictures

3. Developing 3.1 Individual task • Personal assignmentstask • Individual study for remediation and enrichment

• Special interest activity

3.2 Group work • Share ideas• Discuss problems• Peer-tutoring• Process review

3.3 Whole class • Giving overview and instructions for tasks• Summing up• Making presentations• Organising camps and fairs

4. Recognising 4.1 Self-pacing • Preparation of graded materialindividual • Self-evaluation exercisesdifferences • Demonstrating mastery on given task

SCIENCE INSTRUCTION FOR MAKING CHILDREN THINK AND DO THINK AND DO THINK AND DO THINK AND DO THINK AND DO

72


4.2 Addressing to • Puzzles, gamesmultiple • Music, singingintelligence • Role plays, performing arts

• Guided visualisation and fantasising• Making and doing things

5. Using local 5.1 Natural • Study visits, field visitsenvironment surroundings • Nature hunt

• Gardens, nurseries

5.2 Physical • Using discarded, low-cost and no-cost materialssurroundings • Using local available inexpensive materials

5.3 Societal • Local artisans for making teaching aidsresources • Community resources

• Museums, science parks, fairs

6. Creating 6.1 Wall displays • Children’s workinteresting • Posters, charts, pictures, drawings, paintingsclassroom • Pocket board

6.2 Suspended • Mobiles, kitesdisplays • Cut-outs, masks

• Puppets• String-library• Self-made big books

6.3 Self-displays • Collected objects, materials, equipments, instructions• Models, toys

In Conclusion

Thus, we see that science teaching can be effective in the cognitive development of students only whenproject work is done seriously and science curriculum is made child-centred. In such circumstancesalone, students will acquire the abilities to sense problems, collect observations, make interpretationsand arrive at conclusions which are basic to effective learning of science.

APPED. 1993. Course guidelines for Tutors (Course V), Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Primary Education Project.

GOOD R.G. 1980. How Children Learn Science. New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc.

PONTS, W.M. et.al. 1970. Teaching of Science in Secondary Schools. John Murray. London.

OWN, C.B. 1966. Methods for Science Masters. The English Language Book Society. London.

RICHARDSON, J.S. 1957. Science Teaching in Secondary Schools. Prentice Hall, Inc., New Jersey.

References

73

The tribal population in the state of Maharashtrais about 10 per cent of the total population. Theyare clustered in three traditional regions:Sahyadri, Satpura and Gondvan. TribalDevelopment Department of the Government ofMaharashtra has established adequate number ofAshram schools to facilitate the education oftribal children in each of these regions. After theinitial reluctance from tribal communities theenrolment in these schools has improvedconsiderably. Nevertheless, because of lack oftradition of education in their homes, learning offormal school subjects remains a Herculean taskfor the students. Teachers are expected to makean extra effort to facilitate learning of technicalsubjects like science and mathematics. In orderthat they do their job well, they need to haveproper perception of the subject as well as of thedifficulties faced by the students. What is theperception of teachers related to the aims andobjectives of science curriculum? What are thelearning difficulties of students and how tofacilitate better concept formation in science?What modifications the present evaluationmethods demand to asses the knowledge and

skills acquired by the students? These are crucialquestions and demand for critical exploration.

As a part of its manifold activities the HomiBhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE)conducts in-service training of science andmathematics teachers. Because of its interest inthe education of socially disadvantaged students,HBCSE has been interacting with Ashram schoolsystem for about seven years. It had arrangedtraining courses for teachers teaching scienceand mathematics to Grades IX and X in Post-basicAshram schools. While interacting with studentsat secondary level it was observed that many ofthem had poor initial preparation. Thisobservation brought out the need to improveteaching at the upper primary stage (Classes VI toVIII). Accordingly, in-service training programmesfor the teachers’ teaching in upper primaryclasses have been initiated for the academic year2002-03. In order to assess the needs ofpractising teachers, an attempt was made tounderstand their perception about thecurriculum, areas of difficulty, ways and means toovercome the difficulties, suitability of evolutionmethods, etc. This paper describes the design of

HOW THE TEACHERS IN ASHRAM SCHOOLS PERCEIVE

SCIENCE CURRICULUM AT THE UPPER PRIMARY STAGE

S.C. AgarkarS.C. AgarkarS.C. AgarkarS.C. AgarkarS.C. Agarkar

N.D. DeshmukhN.D. DeshmukhN.D. DeshmukhN.D. DeshmukhN.D. DeshmukhHomi Bhabha Centre for Science EducationTata Institute of Fundamental ResearchMumbai

74


the study, data collection, their analysis andimplications.

Designing a Questionnaire and

Data Collection

The researchers had an opportunity to interactwith about 60 teachers dealing with students atthe upper primary classes during a trainingcourse arranged for Ashram school teachers.This opportunity was used to identify crucialissues related to the teaching of science in theirschools by forming six groups from among theparticipants. The leader of the each group wasexpected to present the summary of thedeliberations. The presentations brought out theurgency to tackle issues related to the suitabilityof school curriculum, teacher pupil interaction,remedial teaching for tribal children, etc. Basedon these inputs, a questionnaire was framed toget the opinions of practising teachers onteaching objectives, students' difficulties, validityof evaluation techniques, etc. It had followingseven questions:

1. What do you think are the aims and objectives

of teaching science at upper primary stage?

2. Which concepts do the students in your

classrooms find difficult?

3. In your opinion what are the causes of the

difficulty?

4. What do you do to overcome these problems?

5. What is your opinion about the present

method of evaluation used to assess the

students’ understanding?

6. What modifications do you suggest in theevaluation procedure?

7. Taking into account the needs of the countryand the requirements of tribal population whatchanges do you recommend in the schoolscience curriculum?

After each question, enough blank space wasprovided for teachers to express their opinions indetail. They were encouraged to use additionalsheet if required. The sample for the studyconsisted of 57 teachers who participated in yetanother training camp of HBCSE. They were from57 different schools in Thane, Pune and Raigaddistricts of the state of Maharashtra. The studentsto whom they cater to, come from communitiesliving in the Sahyadri ranges of the state. Thisregion inhabits the communities like Warli,Katkari, Kokna, Mahadev Koli, Malhar Koli, DhorKoli, Thakar, etc. All these castes are categorisedas the Scheduled Tribes (S.T.) and are givenfacilities as per the norms of the State and CentralGovernment.

Traditionally, in the state of Maharashtra, ClassesV to VII are considered to be the part of upperprimary stage and Class VIII is attached tosecondary schools. The basic Ashram schoolswith upper primary classes terminate at Class VII.The sample of teachers included in the study,therefore, consisted of teachers teaching ClassesV to VII. They had Higher Secondary SchoolCertificate (H.S.S.C) along with a Diploma inEducation (D.Ed.). Most of the teachers were newto the profession with 1-5 years of teachingexperience. Of the 57 teachers who filled thequestionnaire, 39 were males and 18 werefemales. Since teachers are expected to live within

75

the campus of the schools, female teachers areusually reluctant to accept the job in Ashramschools. However, with special drive to get femaleteachers at the primary level, some of the Ashramschools could appoint good number of them.

Data Analyses and Discussion

All the seven questions included in thequestionnaire were analysed separately. Thesalient findings of the analyses are presented inthis section.

Responses to Question 1Responses to Question 1Responses to Question 1Responses to Question 1Responses to Question 1

Teachers were expected to list the aims of scienceeducation they considered important at the upperprimary stage. It has been found that teachersusually express more than one aim. The analysisof the data is shown in Table I. From the table itcan be seen that a large number of teachersconsider developing scientific temper as the mostimportant objective of science teaching. Attemptswere made during the course to explore if theteachers really understood the meaning of thisphrase. Surprisingly, only a few had a clearunderstanding of what the phrase really meansand what is expected when aims at developing“scientific temper”.

Table 1Table 1Table 1Table 1Table 1

Aims of Science Education at UpperAims of Science Education at UpperAims of Science Education at UpperAims of Science Education at UpperAims of Science Education at Upper

Primary StagePrimary StagePrimary StagePrimary StagePrimary Stage

AimsAimsAimsAimsAims Number ofNumber ofNumber ofNumber ofNumber of PercentagePercentagePercentagePercentagePercentage

teachersteachersteachersteachersteachers

Development scientific 36 63.15temper among the students

Understanding incidences 30 52.62occurring in the vicinity

Creating interest towards 26 45.61science

Brining out social 23 40.35development

Development science 21 36.84related competencies

Preparing students to 15 26.31deal with future problems

Explanation of some simple 12 21.05concepts in science

Developing experiment 11 19.29skills

The second aim referred to by a majority ofteachers is to help pupils understand theincidences and happenings in their vicinity.Teachers think that this aim is important for thetribal students as many of them are under theinfluence of superstitions prevailing in theirsociety. The lack of understanding of cause-effectrelationship usually forces people to believe thatthere is some mysterious power behind it. Mostof the teachers displayed the concern of theremoval of wrong beliefs possessed by thestudents. They felt that teaching of science wouldenable them to think rationally and explorecause-effect relationship behind everydayoccurrences.

A little less than half of the teachers (26) believethat the aim of the teaching science at the upperprimary stage is to create interest among thestudents towards science. It is hoped that positiveattitude towards science might motivate them toundertake higher students in science and topursue career related to science. Teachers wereaware of the need for adequate number ofscientists and technocrats for the country. Theywere also concerned that the tribal communitiesare grossly under-represented in these

HOW THE TEACHERS IN ASHRAM SCHOOLS PERCEIVE SCIENCE CURRICULUM AT UPPER PRIMARY STAGEUPPER PRIMARY STAGEUPPER PRIMARY STAGEUPPER PRIMARY STAGEUPPER PRIMARY STAGE

76


professions. They were, however, optimistic thatwith special efforts this picture can be changed.

Social upliftment was considered to be animportant aim of science education by 23teachers. They were more concerned with theimprovement of the status of tribal communities.They believed that learning of science would bringabout social development by enabling thesecommunities to adopt hygienic practices, bymaking use of resources properly and byadopting appropriate methods of cultivation. Asmall number of teacher view teaching of scienceas a vehicle to bring out the relation betweenscience and social development. Althoughteachers look at the science curriculum as ameans of achieving these objectives, many ofthem have a feeling that the present content isinadequate to fulfil these demands.

In the recent past, focus of teaching science hasshifted from information sharing to developingscience related competencies. A programme oncompetence-based teaching has already beenlaunched in the country for the primary grades.Some teachers (1) are influenced by this thinkingand envisage development of these competenciesas the main aim of teaching science even at theupper primary stage. The competencies involvedare the development of curiosity, skill ofobservations, ability to draw inference, etc.

Preparing children for their future is consideredan aim of science education by 15 teachers. Theterm ‘future’ has two connotations: preparing forfurther studies, and preparing for goodcitizenship. Learning of science at the upperprimary stage is expected to prepare student todeal with high school science without anydifficulty. In addition, learning of science is

expected to prepare them to face challenges in thefuture. Further explorations, however, showedthat teachers’ understanding of ‘good citizen’ wasunclear.

A dozen of teachers opine that teaching ofscientific concepts discussed in the respectivetextbooks is the necessary task. Teachers shouldensure that students have a proper conceptformation. Good understanding of textualmaterial would enable them to score better in theexaminations. This success is expected tomotivate children to read science based materialfrom newspapers and magazines and getenriched.

A small number of teachers (11) view developingexperimental skills as an important aim of scienceteaching. Students with rural background areusually well prepared to work with hands.However, when it comes to handling laboratoryinstruments these students commit mistakes.These teachers opined that science teachingshould aim at providing adequate practice toenable the students to acquire necessarylaboratory skills. Acquisition of the skills, theybelieved, would hopefully develop confidenceamong the students.

Responses to Questions 2, 3 and 4Responses to Questions 2, 3 and 4Responses to Questions 2, 3 and 4Responses to Questions 2, 3 and 4Responses to Questions 2, 3 and 4

Questions 2, 3 and 4 focused on students’difficulties, their causes and possible remedialmeasures. Because they were closely related toeach other, the analysis of responses to all thethree questions is presented in one section. As aresponse to question 2, teachers were expected tolist the concepts from the syllabus of Grades V, VIand VII that are found difficult by a majority ofstudents in the classroom. Since most of the

77

teachers had the experience of teaching science toall these classes or to at least one of these classes,they could supply a considerably long list ofconcept. Looking at the list, one finds that theycan be classified under three categories:

1. Concepts involving symbols/formulae:Teachers reported that the concepts involvingsymbols and formulae are found difficult by amajority of students. For example, when theconcept of density is described as ratiobetween mass and volume (m/v) students areunable to know what it means. It might bebecause students are not familiar with thesymbolic language in science.

2. Concepts that cannot be shown: In the opinionof teachers the concepts are found difficult ifthey cannot be shown or demonstrated by anactivity/experiment. Examples in this categoryare: photosynthesis, atomicity, gravitation,digestion, etc. Lack of direct experience addsto the abstract nature of the concept.

3. Concepts devoid of daily relationships: If theconcept has no relation to the daily lives ofstudents, they find it difficult to understand.Concepts in this category are: catalysis, tides,function of a cell, etc. Since they find norelevance they are not motivated to learn.

Why do students find it difficult to deal with abovetypes of concepts? Question 3 sought forteachers’ views on this issue. In addition to listingdifficulties associated with specific type ofconcepts, teachers attempted to mention generaldifficulties faced by the students in scienceeducation. The analysis of the data, thus obtained,is presented in Table 2.

The analysis showed that teachers find unfamiliarlanguage as the single most important area of

difficulty. It would be proper to discuss what sort

of linguistic difficulties students encounter.

Textbook of science makes use of technical terms

derived usually from Sanskrit. Students are unable

to decode the meanings of these terms (Agarkar,

1985). Although science textbook is written in

Marathi (the official language of the state of

Maharashtra) the nature of language spoken by

the tribal communities is often different from that

used in school textbooks. Teachers too, are

tempted to use textual language in classroom

discourse making teacher-pupil interaction non-

productive, as the students prefer to keep silent

when they find the language unpalatable to them.

The second culprit in the eyes of teachers is the

poor initial preparation on the part of students.

Teachers felt that because of poor learning skills,

students were unable to handle involved concepts.

On the affective side, teachers felt that students

were ill motivated to struggle until mastery in

learning was achieved. Thus, inadequate cognitive

entry behaviours as well as improper affective

entry characteristics were responsible for poor

concept formation among the students.

In the views of an appreciable number of teachers

(19) it is the lack of facilities in schools that is to be

blamed. The laboratory facilities in schools are so

meagre that activity based teaching can hardly be

undertaken. Apart from teaching school subjects,

the Ashram schools have the responsibility of

providing education opportunities. In this regard

the teachers felt that the situation is far from

satisfactory. Since the schools are located in

remote areas, opportunities like public lectures

and public library are almost non-existent in their

vicinity. Electronic media like radio and television


78


have made a great headway in recent years. Thesefacilities are, however, not available to students.Lack of proper educational opportunities, in theeyes of teachers, hinders the fixation ofknowledge gained in school classrooms.

Although most of the teachers have blamed schoolsystem, a small number (11) hold teachersresponsible for the lack of students’understanding. Bad teaching, in their opinion is themain cause of poor learning. They felt that manyteachers do not have clear understanding of theaims and objectives of science curriculum. Some ofthem were themselves poor in content knowledgewith large number of unsolved questions anddoubts in their minds. Since there is nomechanism where teachers can receive guidance,they continue to teach badly without ensuring thecomprehension on the part of the learners.

Table 2

Causes of DifficultyCauses of DifficultyCauses of DifficultyCauses of DifficultyCauses of Difficulty

Nature ofNature ofNature ofNature ofNature of N u m b e rN u m b e rN u m b e rN u m b e rN u m b e r PercentagePercentagePercentagePercentagePercentage

di f f icul tyd i f f icul tyd i f f icul tyd i f f icul tyd i f f icul ty of teachersof teachersof teachersof teachersof teachers

Linguistic difficulties 25 43.85

Poor initial preparation 22 38.59

Lack of facilities in schools 19 33.33

Lack of educationalopportunities 11 19.29

Improper teaching method 11 19.29

Non-conducive homeenvironment 10 17.54

Conceptual difficulties 07 12.28

Non-conducive home environment of thestudents is said to be the cause of poor learningby 10 teachers. In their opinion, the home

environment, being deprived in a variety of ways,does not provide any motivation to the students tolearn science seriously. The educational status ofmembers in the society is such that it fails toprovide relevant academic inputs or to satisfy thecuriosity aroused in the minds of children.

Are the concepts within reach of students? A fewteachers (7) feel that the difficulty level of some ofthe concepts is so high that students are notprepared to cope with them. Some of theseteachers even went further to state that studentsfrom deprived homes have a lower I.Q., and henceare incapable of dealing with involved abstractconcepts. These teachers need to re-look at theirbelief system.

Related to various educational problems, question4 attempted to seek information from teachersabout special efforts that they make to helpchildren learn difficult concepts. Barring a fewwho left the question blank, a majority hadmentioned what they do within and outsideclassrooms. The nature of efforts made byteachers can be conveniently categorised asshown in Table 3.

The large number of efforts are concerned withactivities/experiments. In the opinion of teachersit is the abstractness of the concept that makes itdifficult to understand. This abstractness can beremoved by performing suitable activities. Eventhough many (41) have said that they resort tolaboratory programme, it must be noted that it ismostly of demonstration type. Students are hardlygiven an opportunity for hands-on activities(Agarkar, et al. 1997).

Since language difficulty was considered to be themain hurdle in learning science, teachers (29)

79

seem to take care of this difficulty very seriously.On one hand, they try to familiarise students withthe formal language by giving readingassignments to the students. To achieve a little funin this assignment, some teachers even arrangeblind games of picking up sheets to decide whoshould read. On the other hand, teachers attemptto simplify the language of the textbook byproviding meanings of technical terms and usingcolloquial language in the classroom.

Table 3

Efforts by TeachersEfforts by TeachersEfforts by TeachersEfforts by TeachersEfforts by Teachers


ef for tse f for tse f for tse f for tse f for ts of teachersof teachersof teachersof teachersof teachers

Emphasis on 41 71.92experimentation

Language simplification 29 50.87

Examples and anecdotes 14 24.56

Enhancing pupil 13 22.80participation

Outdoor activities 09 15.78

Question-answer 07 12.28and revision

A substantial number of teachers (14) stated thatthey resort to giving examples and anecdotes toclarify science concepts. Science textbooksattempt to provide some relevant examples andanecdotes. However, since they are preparedcentrally for the use by schools in the entire state,examples cited in the book are seldom relevant tothe lives of students. In such a situation, teachershave to look for life-related examples. This iscertainly a challenging task that is undertaken byonly a small number of teachers.

A group of teacher (13) struggled to enhancepupils’ participation in the classroom. Due to fearof committing mistakes, students prefer toremain passive in the classroom. Many of themare afraid of the punishment that the teachermight give if they do something wrong. It is amatter of concern and skill to make studentsactively participate in the classroom deliberations.It is heartening to note that a small number ofteacher strive to achieve this goal.

A few teachers (9) have said that they focus onarranging outdoor activities. Because of thescenic location of the schools, students have agood scope for nature study. Some of theteachers make use of this opportunity byarranging outdoor activities. In their opinions,outdoor exposure is as important as classroominteraction as it provides opportunities forexperiential learning among the students. Bysome (7), however, dealing with students’questions sympathetically is seen as a solution toovercome students’ problems. Since the timeavailable in the classroom is not enough to dealwith students’ questions, these teachers usuallyarrange separate question-answer sessionsduring the free time of the students.

Responses to Questions 5 and 6Responses to Questions 5 and 6Responses to Questions 5 and 6Responses to Questions 5 and 6Responses to Questions 5 and 6

These questions were framed to get teachers’opinion about the present mode of evaluation andto seek their suggestions for modifications. Nineteachers did not attempt to respond to thesequestions. Of the remaining, roughly half of theteachers felt that the present method of evaluationis proper while the other half opined that it isgrossly inadequate. It would be informative toinquire why these teachers feel the way they do.


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Let us look at the arguments made by theteachers who felt that the present mode ofevolution is appropriate. Some of the reasonsgiven by them are as follows:

1. It helps us to discriminate who have acquiredconcepts and who have not.

2. It enables us to understand the lacunae in theconceptual understanding of the students sothat the difficult portion can be revised.

3. It provides an opportunity to the students forwritten communications and facilitatesteachers to know who can express theirknowledge properly in the written mode.

4. Since students are expected to rememberinformation for examinations, it helps todevelop the skill of memorisation.

5. Examinations arranged at regular intervals oftime prompt the students to revise the matterand keep themselves up-to-date.

Why do many teachers think that the presentmode of evaluation is not proper? In theiropinions it has the following drawbacks:

1. It focuses only on the written mode ofcommunication. Those who are unable toexpress properly in written mode are at loss.

2. It encourages mugging up of the informationwithout understanding. Good score in theexaminations is often wrongly equated withgood understanding of the subject.

3. It does not test the skills like keen observation,handling of instruments, ability to drawinference from the data, ability to useinformation in daily life, etc.

4. It puts undue emphasis on objective testingand hence students usually avoid going deepinto the matter.

5. The question papers are usually same forurban as well as for rural children. Ruralchildren are at loss as they have differentdomain of experience and different level oflinguistic competence.

Teachers were asked to make suggestions for theimprovement of the present mode of evaluation.Their responses belonged to three differentcategories. The first category of teachers (19)comprised those who stated that present mode ofevaluation is appropriate and needs nomodification. The second category comprisedthose who felt that the evaluation method isgenerally acceptable but desires somemodifications (06). The last category of teachers(23) consisted of those who felt that the presentmethod is grossly inadequate and needs drasticchanges. Suggestions made by second and thirdcategories of teachers can be classified as shownin Table 4.

Table 4

Suggestions for Improvement in Mode ofSuggestions for Improvement in Mode ofSuggestions for Improvement in Mode ofSuggestions for Improvement in Mode ofSuggestions for Improvement in Mode of

EvaluationEvaluationEvaluationEvaluationEvaluation

Category ofCategory ofCategory ofCategory ofCategory of N u m b e rN u m b e rN u m b e rN u m b e rN u m b e r PercentagePercentagePercentagePercentagePercentage

s u g g e s t i o n ss u g g e s t i o n ss u g g e s t i o n ss u g g e s t i o n ss u g g e s t i o n s of teachersof teachersof teachersof teachersof teachers

Within class evaluation 16 33.33

Use of experiments/ 15 31.25activities

Diagnostic testing 14 29.16

Based on experiences 09 18.75

Style of questioning 03 06.25

Testing of personality 03 06.25traits

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A majority of teachers suggested that teacher-made test should be given importance. A littleexplanation is required to appreciate the concernexpressed in this suggestion. In order to keeppace with other schools, the Tribal DevelopmentDepartment acquires and uses tests made byother educational institutions for the terminalexaminations of Ashram schools. Teachers feelthat those tests are framed taking urban middleclass students into account. Some teachers (3)even felt that the language and the style ofquestions are unsuitable for the students comingfrom tribal homes. Due to the common mode oftesting students, they felt that their students oftenperformed at a lower level than they deserve.Hence, teachers advocated that testing should beentrusted to the teaching community of theAshram-school system.

As mentioned above, many of the teachers (15)were worried that the school testing neglectsevaluation of experimental skills at the upperprimary level even though practical examinationsare conducted at school leaving stage. In theiropinion, due importance should be given to thelaboratory programme both in teaching and inassessment. Activity based assessment wouldenable the teachers to not only assess students,laboratory skills but also to find out if studentscan make use of scientific knowledge in practicalset up. Along with laboratory testing, a smallnumber of teachers (3) even went further tosuggest that personality traits should beassessed.

Appreciable number of teachers (14) suggestedthat diagnostic tests should be prepared and usedfrequently to assess the lacunae in pupils’

understanding. Such a test should beadministered soon after the completion of theunit in the classroom. Ashram schools cater to aspecial group of students. Their homebackground and the nature of experiences arevery much different from the other students. Thetesting that assumes a normal classroominteraction is not suitable to these students.Hence, teachers (9) suggested that the testsshould be prepared taking into account the natureof experiences the students have.

Responses to Question 7Responses to Question 7Responses to Question 7Responses to Question 7Responses to Question 7

Teachers were asked to offer suggestions of themodifications in science curriculum at upperprimary stage taking into account the needs of thecountry and of the community the Ashramschools serve. Only a small number of teacherscould make suggestions taking into account theneeds of the country. All those suggestions referonly to the teaching of information technology.They were, however, not clear as to what extent itshould be taught to the students. Many of theteachers felt that they have no authority andexperience to think of national level policy. They(52) could, however, make suggestions taking intoaccount the requirements of the students, as theyhave been interacting with them day in and dayout. Some of the suggestions made by theteachers are mentioned in Table 5.

In the opinion of a large number of teachers, thetextbook is the most important instructionalmaterial used in school teaching. The content andthe style of textbook influence not only classroominteraction but also learning of the subject. They,therefore, recommended that the textbooksshould be modified suitably to facilitate learning


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Table 5

Suggestions for Curriculum ModificationsSuggestions for Curriculum ModificationsSuggestions for Curriculum ModificationsSuggestions for Curriculum ModificationsSuggestions for Curriculum Modifications


s u g g e s t i o n ss u g g e s t i o n ss u g g e s t i o n ss u g g e s t i o n ss u g g e s t i o n s of teachersof teachersof teachersof teachersof teachers

Inclusion of content useful 24 42.10for social development

Style of presentation 19 33.33in the textbook

Bringing out relation 15 26.32to daily life

Opportunities to develop 06 10.52competence

of science among Ashram school students. Thetribal communities are usually dependent on theforest products and agriculture for theirlivelihood. It should be useful if the sciencecurriculum provides them guidelines to make useof their resources optimally. Lack of hygienichabits is another problem worth-reckoning. Itwould be desirable if science curriculum attemptsto tackle this issue. Because of the isolation fromthe mainstream, many of the communities are stillunfamiliar with the recent technologicaldevelopments. An attempt to acquaint them withthe modern technology and equipping them touse the technology for their benefits would alsobe welcome.

Apart from the choice of the content, the teachers(19) have specific suggestions for the style oftextbook presentations. Firstly, all of them haverecommended that it should be written in asimple language palatable to the students comingfrom tribal homes. Secondly, it should haveadequate number of examples and anecdotes to

explain involved concepts. Thirdly, it shouldprovide sufficient number of activities that can beeasily performed in the schools. Lastly, it shouldsuggest model questions to assess conceptualunderstanding of students.

In addition to charges in curriculum and textbookpreparation, a substantial number of teachershave made suggestions for the change in teachingstyle. There were two specific suggestions madeby the teachers. The first suggestion refers torelating science to daily lives of students. In orderthat students are motivated to learn the conceptsin science, teachers suggested that the relevanceof the content should be brought out clearly. Toachieve this goal, teachers will have to makespecial efforts. Since the textbooks are writtencentrally, it will not be possible to refer to diverseexperiences within the textbook itself. It would bethe duty of a teacher to look for appropriateexperiences and examples to illustrate or explainthe concept at hand.

In the teaching of science, many teachers equatetransfer of scientific information to the teachingof science. One of the main aims of teachings isthe development of skills pertaining to scientificpursuit. Along with teaching of science, one needsto take into account teaching through science(Shayer and Adey, 1981). Some of the teachers haverealised this need and hence suggestedmodification in the classroom interaction to putemphasis on skill development. In addition toproviding opportunities in the classrooms, someteachers feel that deliberate efforts be made toprovide out-of-classroom opportunities forlearning and fixation of knowledge (Kawathekarand Agarkar, 2002).

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Conclusion and Implications

The study referred to in the paper was conductedon a sample of teachers drawn from Ashramschools in Sahyadri ranges. There are a largenumber of such schools catering to ruralpopulation in the country. The study has raisedissues related to curriculum, teacher preparation,assessment techniques, and school facilities, etc.All these issues are important as far as theteaching of science in Indian schools is concernedand need to be looked critically.

Framing of School Curriculum

Education is on the concurrent list of the State aswell as of the Central Government. The mainresponsibility of framing curriculum falls on thecentral agency (National Council of EducationalResearch and Training). It usually makes availablethe framework of curriculum and sampletextbooks for the consideration of the stategovernments. Some of the state governmentsaccept the curriculum as it is, while some othersadopt it to suit the needs of their population. Thestudy brings out the fact that requirement of thetribal population are very much different fromother population and this aspect must be takeninto account while framing the curriculum. Ruralpeople look at education with great aspirations tochange their lifestyle. Some of them vieweducation as a tool to remove superstitions; someview it as a means to provide bread and butterwhile some others look at it as a route to properutilisation of resource. In the centralised mode ofcurriculum framing, all these aspects might notget reflected. These changes will have to be madeat local level.

Teacher Preparation

In India, prospective teachers are expected toundergo training in education. At the upperprimary level, teachers usually have Diploma inEducation (D.Ed.). It provides general backgroundfor the teaching, taking into account thecontemporary knowledge in educationalpsychology. It, however, does not prepareteachers to handle the special group of studentslike the one being considered in this paper. In theabsence of understanding of the difficulties thesestudents face, many teachers hurriedly concludethat the students have a lower IntelligenceQuotient (I.Q). As a result, these teachers are sopessimistic that they go to the extent of makingstatement – “No change will bring these studentsinto the mainstream”. There is, therefore, anurgent need to change the attitude of teacherstowards the educability of tribal students.

Moreover, there is always a change in the contentof the subjects they are expected to teach. In caseof science, the changes are prominent forcingteachers to deal with concept that they might havenot studied during their school days. This bringsout the urgent need for the in-service training ofteachers. It has been found in many fieldprogrammes of the HBCSE that teachers demandfor inputs in content as well as in pedagogy(Agarkar, et.al. 1997).

Educational Opportunities for

Students

The school system referred to in this paper catersto a special group of communities that hardlyprovide suitable home background to undertake


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academic activities. Schools are expected toprovide opportunities to compensate for thisdeprivation. Fortunately, there is a scope forundertaking compensatory measures sinceteachers and pupils usually stay together evenafter regular school hours. Students have aconsiderable free time at their disposal toundertake developmental activities. Some of theactivities that have been referred by the teachersare the organisation of the picnic and takingstudents to outdoor activities. There istremendous scope to channelise peer interactionmaking the children to undertake academicactivities within the schools or out of the schools(Agarkar, et.al. 2002).

Bridging Policy and Practice

One of the major recommendations of theEducation Commission Report (1966) was to teachscience on compulsory basis up to the schoolleaving stage. Following these recommendations,curriculum guidelines were prepared andtextbooks were written for primary, upperprimary as well as for secondary level classes inthe decade of 1970.The curriculum was basicallydiscipline based where attempt was made to teachconcepts in physics, chemistry and biology. Inorder that the students can handle thesedisciplines at the secondary level, the upperprimary syllabus was used as a preparatory stage.The New Education Policy (1986), however,brought out the need for the teaching of science

in an integrated fashion. Accordingly, newtextbooks were developed highlighting theprogress of science as a human endeavour for thepursuit of knowledge. As per the recent thinking(NCERT, 2000), science is to be coupled withtechnology as both of them usually go together.Efforts to bring out new set of textbooks basedon this philosophy have been initiated by theNational Council of Educational Research andTraining (NCERT). Are the changes in policytransferred into practice? The study showed thatmany of the teachers do not have clearunderstanding of the aims and objectives of thechanged science curriculum. In the absence ofproper information, they continue to teach in theirtraditional way. Special efforts are required toensure that policy gets implemented at the

school level.

There is a standard mode of evaluation that is

followed in the Indian school system. It is based

mainly on communication. Pupils who have not

developed adequate skills in written

communication are often at disadvantages and

perform at lower level than they deserve. This

aspect is found prominent in case of technical

subjects like science that make profuse use of

technical jargon. What is required is to adapt

different methods of evaluation. One suggestion

pertained to oral testing and activity-based

testing. These methods are seldom used in the

testing at the upper primary level. Now is the time

to review them to bring about improvement in the

method of evolution.

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AGARKAR, S.C., N.D. DESHMUKH, V.D. LALE and V.C. SONAWANE. 2002. Capacity building in Ashram Schools. InS.C. Agarkar and V.D. Lale (Eds.) Science. Technology and Mathematics Education for Human Development.Vol. 1. Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education. TIFR. Mumbai.

AGARKAR, S.C. 1997. Programme to improve teaching of science and mathematics in rural secondary schools.Indian Journal of Education. 73(2): 60-68.

KAVATHEKAR R.D. and S.C. AGARKAR. 2002. Arranging industrial visit for school students. Paper presented inthe 43rd STAN conference held at Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

KOTHARI, J.S. 1966. Education and Development. Ministry of Education. New Delhi.

KULKARNI V.G. and S.C. AGARKAR. 1985. Talent Search and Nurture among the Underprivileged. Homi BhabhaCentre for Science Education. TIFR. Mumbai.

KULKARNI, V.G., S.C. AGARKAR and V.G. GAMBHIR. 1990. Comprehensive programme to Improve the status ofscience and mathematics education in the Tribal regions of the state of Maharashtra. Technical Report 17.Homi Bhabha Centre of Science Education. TIFR. Mumbai.

MHRD. 1986. National Education Policy. Ministry Education. New Delhi.

SHAYER, M. and P. ADEY. 1991. Towards a Science of Science Teaching. Heinemann Education Books.London.

References


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of the regional centres given on the copyright page.

Textbooks for B.Ed

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of the regional centres given on the copyright page.

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